


Shoulder Devil

by GremlinJack



Category: Naruto, 幼女戦記 | Youjo Senki | Saga of Tanya the Evil (Anime)
Genre: Hearing Voices
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-30
Updated: 2020-04-29
Packaged: 2021-02-27 14:53:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 9
Words: 25,543
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22478983
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GremlinJack/pseuds/GremlinJack
Summary: Summary: Sakura Haruno's father brings home a gift for his young daughter. A strange clockwork jewel. And within that jewel she finds the entrapped soul of a young woman. Or is it perhaps a Devil?This story started life as a Patreon commission, but enough chapters have been commissioned to justify its own thread. All credit to my generous patrons Hangwind and Akitsu91.
Comments: 84
Kudos: 462





	1. Chapter 1

**Shoulder Devil Ch. 1**  
  
Konohagakure law officially classified the Haruno family as civilian, but that did not mean they had never produced any shinobi for Konoha. In fact, it was not at all unusual for civilian families to send a second or third son into Konoha's shinobi forces. They rarely achieved high rank, but when the village's chief export was chakra-powered mercenaries, having one in your own family was seen as being socially responsible, patriotic, and even fashionable. Kizashi Haruno himself had been a second son who had done five years as a genin, survived the Second Shinobi War by virtue of never facing an enemy shinobi without more powerful allies, and then quietly retired and used his aura as a war veteran to marry well and set up a successful merchant business.  
  
When birth complications left his wife unable to bear a second child, both he and his wife had assumed their darling daughter Sakura would grow up to either marry well by virtue of being his sole heiress, or perhaps do the daring thing and take over the business. Then when she was almost six, Sakura had to go and declare her intent to become a shinobi.  
  
His wife Mebuki thought being a kunoichi was an uncivilized path for a lady of breeding. Kizashi had far more solid reasons for refusing. He remembered his own days as a shinobi well enough to know it was no life to wish on his daughter. The lunatics who specialized in combat operations rarely lived to see thirty. The more sane shinobi who spent most of their time in non-combat roles had careers that were long, tedious, and underpaid - until something like a war forced them into combat where they would then be summarily butchered by enemy combat specialists. And that's leaving out things like tailed beast attacks. Bad as the civilian casualties had been, that was nothing compared to the shinobi who had been stuck trying to fight the nine-tailed demon fox.  
  
Unfortunately, refusal had not been an option. Their daughter had somehow made friends with the heiress to the Yamanaka Clan, and she had made her declaration right in front of said heiress. While refusing to let her attend the ninja academy was still within their rights, it would have been social suicide. When the daughter of a major shinobi clan head tells you she was looking forward to seeing your daughter at the academy, you let your daughter attend the academy. The excommunication and suicide of Sakumo Hatake was still held as an example of what awaited those who tried to swim against the cultural tide.  
  
In privacy, his wife did everything possible to persuade their daughter away from her course. When that didn't work, she entered a state of denial where she convinced herself her daughter was simply going through a phase she would grow out of. Kizashi was more pragmatic, and focused on doing what could to maximize his daughter's chances of survival. Unfortunately, the natural of his far flung business meant he could never give his daughter the personal attention and benefit of his own experience. He did his best, encouraging her to study every theoretical aspect of shinobi work and purchasing all the necessary books in the hopes that she might be tapped for a non-combat role right out of the academy. And in his quest to give his daughter every advantage, he came across what he thought was a very useful little toy.  
  
It was on a trip to Sunagakure that he came across the jeweled brooch in the market. It was a large semi-precious stone set in a casing composed of ridiculously intricate clockwork. It was apparently a curio obtained from the strange lands far to the west of the Great Desert. The merchant who possessed it could mold a bit of chakra, and he used this to demonstrate how the clockwork would spin and move in dizzying patterns when exposed to chakra. Kizashi immediately recognized it as an excellent tool for encouraging his daughter to work on her chakra control. As such, he did not hesitate to spend his entire profit margin for the trip on acquiring it.  
  


* * *

  
Sakura Haruno loved her new toy. She did not reveal it to anyone because it felt so childish, but in private moments she loved watching the intricate movements of the clockwork. She was also a very bright child, so it took less than a month for her to figure out that the number of gears that would move depended entirely on the pattern in which she entered her chakra into the device. It became a game for her to try and enter her chakra in a way to create the most complicated movements. Then she realized that the device had gears that were not only invisible, but _didn't actually exist._ Enter chakra in just the right way, and she'd feel gears start to move in her very soul.  
  
Sakura was hooked. What started as a game became a minor obsession. She didn't realize it, but trying to divine the device's secrets pushed both her chakra capacity and control to far beyond normal levels.  
  
It was shortly after her ninth birthday that she found a very complex pattern that moved every single gear.  
  


* * *

  
_"It has been so long. Who are you?.... Ah. I see. You are the holder of my prison."  
  
"Prison? You are trapped here? Who are you?"  
  
"Trapped. Yes. After I died, my soul was trapped in this infernal device. As for me, I had many names while I lived. Some called me Shining Silver. Others called me The Devil. But you can call me Tanya."_  
  


* * *

  
Sakura was at heart a kind girl. Her first instinct was to be sad that Tanya was trapped in the brooch, which was apparently called the Type 95, whatever that meant. Once it became clear that even if she could free Tanya it would mean her soul would simply disappear into the afterlife, she got used to having the little voice on her shoulder. Tanya, Sakura realized, was not a very nice person. But she had a wonderfully dry wit that made her laugh even as she felt guilty for all the mean things Tanya said.  
  
Tanya was also encouraged her to study and train hard. In fact, Tanya was absolutely brutal. Once she understood what being a shinobi meant, Tanya drove Sakura to train and work to levels that Sakura thought insane. But unless Sakura wanted to leave her newfound friend behind, she had no choice but to do at least some (most) of what Tanya required of her in order to keep the peace between them.  
  


* * *

  
_You really think I can help free you one day?  
  
Yes. It is clear that your people have developed magical abilities - yes, yes, I know you call it chakra - far beyond what my own people ever achieved. There might even be a method to create a body that my soul can be transferred to. But I doubt it's going to be easy. Which is why you need to be the best shinobi you can be.  
  
So you are helping me just for that?  
  
Of course. Understand Sakura, true friendship and loyalty takes years of effort to build. I had friends like that, but it came to pass only after we had gone through years of hell side by side. In time, we may become friends like that. Until then, the only trust we have is our desire for a common goal. You want to be a great shinobi. Creating a body for me will most likely require a great shinobi. Thus, our goals align for now, which is why we can trust each other.  
  
_

* * *

  
However, Tanya acted as more than a drill instructor in her head. While she acknowledged her own powers were far less flexible than what chakra could offer, she mentioned one thing that set fire to Sakura's imagination. In her past life, Tanya could _fly._  
  
The only shinobi that Sakura could think of who was known to fly was the current Tsuchikage. Even a month of research only turned up mention of a Land of the Sky, but their ability to fly must not have been very good, Tanya pointed out, because they were wiped out during the Second Shinobi War.  
  
Attempts to fly using the Type 95 met with failure. After many trials, they both concluded that the jewel's power was almost entirely tied up in keeping Tanya's soul prisoner.  
  
Still, even though it could no longer be used to fly, the Type 95 did allow Sakura enough power to perform a few useful tricks. Physical reinforcement and reflex enhancement, the basic spells from Tanya's life, and the basic abilities of any shinobi. With Tanya's help, Sakura learned how to enhance herself to match any of the clan ninja in her class.  
  
It wasn't all fun and games though. There were some serious arguments. Particularly when around the age of 10 Sakura developed her first crush.  
  


* * *

  
_"Sakura, you will go back tomorrow and apologize to Ino! And you will make it convincing! I can't believe you're throwing away a friendship like that over some pouty brat!"  
  
"He is not a brat! Sasuke is the coolest most awesome guy in class! He's the last Uchiha! He's a super-talented ninja! His story is so tragic... he's like a prince from some great saga!"  
  
"The only tragedy I see here is you throwing away an alliance with the heiress of a great shinobi clan in order to chase after damaged goods."  
  
"SASUKE IS NOT DAMAGED GOODS!"_  
  
That was the first time Sakura had willingly thrown away the device from herself, sending it clattering to a corner of her room. For a full week the only attention she paid it was to throw it the occasional glare. However, since she had also broken ties with her closest friend in the physical world, it wasn't long before the loneliness got too much to bear. Finally, Sakura swallowed her pride and took up the Type 95 once more.  
  
_"Tanya? Are you there? I'm sorry for shouting at you."  
  
"You were upset. I forgive you. Perhaps my own words were rather harsh."  
  
"So you don't really think Sasuke is damaged goods?"  
  
"Sakura, think about it for a minute. The boy's entire extended family got murdered when he was eight. It would be unbelievable if the boy wasn't mentally damaged. I lived and fought through a war, Sakura. I've seen trained adults break with only a fraction of the loss Sasuke suffered. And no amount of sympathy will change this fact."  
  
"Well then it's even more important for me to get close to him! Love will help him heal from his loss!"_  
  
A groan echoed out in Sakura's mind. _"Sakura, love isn't some kind of bandage you slap on a wound and just wait for it to make things better! Besides, my people had a saying - love is a two-way street. It doesn't matter how much you love him, it's completely useless if he doesn't love you back."  
  
"Well that just makes it even more important for me to get close to him! Then he will realize his love for me!"  
  
"Just like you've realized your love for Naruto?"  
  
"W-WHAT?! Ewww! Why would you say that? I thought you hated Naruto!"  
  
"I do. Which is why you can imagine my disappointment to see you acting like him. Trying to force your attention on poor Sasuke with no respect for his feelings..."  
  
"But... but then how can I make him love me if I don't capture his attention?!"  
  
"You're really hung up on this brat, aren't you?"  
  
"Yes!"  
  
"Alright, alright, I suppose Sasuke is still rich even with his clan dead, so pursuing him isn't a total waste of time..."  
  
"I don't care about that.... wait does this mean you approve?"  
  
"No, I don't. But I will make you a deal. You make up with Ino, and I'll help you draw Sasuke's attention."  
  
"Wait, why should I make up with Ino-pig when she's my love rival!"  
  
"Sakura, this is non-negotiable. Ino is the heiress to a major clan. And unlike the Uchiha, her clan is still alive. So if she decides to ever get serious about your little rivalry, she can create all sorts of problems, not just for you, but your future career, and maybe even your family. How hard would it be for a clan of information specialists to spread a few rumors wrecking your father's business reputation? Or for the head of the Yamanaka to arrange for one pink-haired genin to be assigned to permanent sewer-cleaning duty?"  
  
"Ino wouldn't do something like that!"  
  
"Perhaps not right now when she's too young to think of such things. But as she grows older and starts wielding actual influence? And the worst part is, even if you succeed in capturing the Uchiha's heart, he won't be able to protect you. Not without a clan of his own."  
  
"So what do I do?"  
  
"As the first step, you will apologize and reaffirm your friendship with Ino. It's only been a few days, it shouldn't be hard at all you retake your old position as her best friend. And you will be her best friend. You will support her in all endeavors, you will sympathize with all setbacks, you will become her closest confidante. You will be such good friends that when the day comes and you steal Sasuke Uchiha out from under her, she will be too busy being happy for you to feel jealous."  
  
"Um... that doesn't sound very nice..."  
  
"Why? It's not as if you'll be lying to her. You really will stop chasing the Uchiha. Hell, if she asks, you'll even help her with her own attempts on him."  
  
"What? WHY?"  
  
"Because, Sakura, the real trick isn't getting the Uchiha. The real trick will be surviving the backlash from all the others looking to get their hooks into him. And the way to do that is to get Sasuke to come to you."  
  
"Huh?"  
  
"It's simple. Chasing Sasuke will make you enemies you can't afford. But if Sasuke is the one chasing you, then your friendship with Ino will mean she will be more inclined to help rather than hinder. Particularly if you appeal to her pride by turning to her for advice when it happens. If you play it right, Ino will not only help you, she will think it's all her own idea. But for any of that to work, Sasuke will have to approach you entirely of his own volition."  
  
"But how do I get him to do that? He never seems to pay attention to anyone!"  
  
"The same way any business goes about marketing a product. First, you need to research your customer, and determine his utility and preferences. Then you need to customize the product according to demand."  
  
"So... I need to spy on Sasuke?"  
  
"What part of 'you need to stop chasing him' did you not get? No, what you need to do is study the Uchiha clan."  
  
"Why the clan?"  
  
"Because, Sakura, members of prestigious shinobi clans marry not for love, but politics and genetics. Sasuke was eight when the Uchiha died, which means he was old enough to have picked up on their ideals and prejudices. You want to attract the last Uchiha? You need to find out what the Uchiha usually looked for in their spouses. Most of the really juicy info will be locked away in private records, but given how famous the Uchiha were, there should be some useful stuff available in public."  
  
"So... the library?"  
  
"No. First Ino. Then the library. And maybe the village records offices. This is not going to be quick, Sakura. But information gathering and patience are both important skills for a shinobi to learn."_  
  
Sakura thought about it for several minutes. Although it seemed sketchy, she realized Tanya was right. As long as she was a good friend to Ino and never actually tried to do anything behind her back, then it was perfectly fine. Turning herself into Sasuke's dream woman, she'd be doing it right in front of Ino, so was it her fault if Ino didn't notice? And Tanya had a point, even if things didn't work out with Sasuke, at least she'd still be best friends with the heiress of a major clan.  
  
Thus decided, Sakura headed out. She had a best friend to make up with.


	2. Chapter 2

**Shoulder Devil Ch. 2**  
  
Sakura had to admit, there were times she found herself in agreement with Tanya's more caustic observations regarding Konoha's administration. In this particular case, it was the observation Tanya had made, months ago, that the chief purpose of Konoha's library (at least the civilian-accessible sections) was to spread propaganda and disinformation rather than educate the public.  
  
Her initial foray into the library had been to find information on the Uchiha clan in order to try and determine what sort of women ended up marrying into their leadership. That had been months ago. She was now well past her eleventh birthday and in her last year in the academy, and she had finally found something pertaining to her original quest.  
  
It was a record of births and marriages in the higher ranked houses of the Uchiha clan, stretching back to shortly after the Village's founding. You'd think such a record would be in the section of the library dedicated to the Uchiha clan. Or maybe the section on village history and politics, or even a genealogical record. But no, she had found it of all places in a medical text discussing the inheritance of bloodline traits. She hadn't even been looking for it, instead having borrowed the book merely out of curiosity in between studying up on battlefield medicine.  
  
During her research on the Uchiha, the few genealogies in the library dealt almost exclusively with clans that were already extinct. The section on village history seemed to pretend that the Uchiha did nothing of real significance other than steal other village's techniques with their special chakra-detecting eyes, run the village Police Force, and produce the arch-traitors Madara Uchiha and Itachi Uchiha. The section specifically dedicated to the Uchiha seemed to alternately brag about and condemn the clan for their seemingly overwhelming obsession with combat prowess and their Sharingan eyes. There were practically no works authored by Uchiha other than a few texts on fire jutsu theory, and some commentaries on Konoha politics that were blatant even in Sakura's inexperienced eyes for their pro-Uchiha bias. It was telling that the most cited work on the Uchiha Clan was written by Tobirama Senju the Second Hokage, a man who was openly accepted as one of their harshest detractors.  
  
Sakura had at first been intimidated and confused by the seemingly contradictory nature of much of the material available on the Uchiha. Then Tanya had suggested she line up the references based on publication date, and a pattern emerged. Books at or around the First Hokage's time were harshly critical of Madara Uchiha, but positive towards the rest of his clan, almost as if all evil in the world (or at least, Konoha) was carried by Madara and died with him. Once the Second Hokage came to power, that tune changed. The Second's own polemic on the Uchiha quickly became the go-to reference, and the oft-quoted phrase 'The Curse of Hatred' came into being with regards to the Uchiha clan.  
  
With the death of the Second, there was once more a more positive outlook on the Uchiha, at least during the first half of the Third Hokage's reign. Then came the Second Shinobi World War, and commentary on the Uchiha went from praising them to damning them with faint praise. The books noted the superior performance of Uchiha soldiers, but also noted how few of them there were, since large parts of the clan never left the village as they were part of the Police Force. This was a pattern than continued right up until the Uchiha massacre. After that, all mention of them stopped with a startling suddenness. A few records referenced the massacre as the cause of the massive shrinkage in Uchiha numbers, but reading the latest work (her own academy history textbook) you'd get the impression the Uchiha numbers had simply faded due to natural causes.  
  
Tanya had then made Sakura find the casualty lists for the Second Shinobi War, before pinpointing what Tanya claimed was the reason opinion seemed to have turned against the Uchiha halfway through the Third's reign. The Second Shinobi War had inflicted enormous damage on the Senju and their allies. Both Senju and Sarutobi clans had taken serious casualties, and the Uzumaki had been wiped out entirely. In contrast, the Uchiha had come through mostly intact. Starting a propaganda campaign suggesting they had done less than their share was an obvious ploy to damage their political standing.  
  
A lengthy trawl through the books mentioning other clans showed that the Uchiha were perhaps unique in how the history books had treated them. While not all clans were acclaimed, no other shinobi clan had been so publicly accused of holding back on their commitment to Konoha. Even the disgrace and suicide of someone called Sakumo of the Hatake clan had been treated as an aberration. Tanya had a ready explanation - no other clan in Konoha had posed a threat to the Senju and their allies' preeminence in the village, so naturally there was no point vilifying them.  
  
At that point, Sakura had given up getting anything actually useful out of the library on the Uchiha. However, she had picked up one clue. The Uchiha prized power, that was something almost very source agreed on. Which meant the best thing she could do was make herself the strongest shinobi she could be. Which was what Tanya had wanted, and what she could have been doing if she hadn't spent weeks studying the Uchiha.  
  
Tanya had been unbearably smug for days.  
  
The pursuit of power had seen her returning to the library, though nowhere near as often. The most useful part of the library had been the chronicles on foreign shinobi (information on whom Konoha was relatively free with). Not because these chronicles contained any actual skills, but because it gave Sakura an idea of what was possible for a high level shinobi to achieve. The answer, it seemed, was almost anything...  
  


* * *

  
  
"Please remember, Sakura, even though your chakra seems to be at least rooted in magecraft as I knew it, there are distinct differences. Magecraft was ultimately about manipulating direct physical forces and raw energy. Chakra is far more conceptual in nature. Chakra seems to work in certain ways because you _think_ it ought to work that way. The entire elemental cycle, for example, is clearly a human construct having no basis in nature, but is accepted as universal truth because all current ninjutsu seems to have descended from a single source. Magic's advantage is that because it consists of simple, direct manipulations, it did not have to struggle against the natural laws. For example, a flight spell was nothing more than sustained thrust directed at your own body. Like throwing a kunai, only you were throwing yourself. Otherwise, everything was happening within the bounds of nature. With chakra on the other hand, every technique is a concept that you are trying to enforce on the world, often running directly in the face of natural law. This lowers the strength of your effects, but it does drastically increase the versatility, so there's no reason you shouldn't be able to do this."  
  
Sakura rolled her eyes at the pompous lecturing tone of the voice inside her head. "Because throwing yourself through the air is so natural! I tried that with chakra and I nearly broke my neck!"  
  
"I warned you that sustained flight required constant minute thrust adjustments that no human mind can easily keep up with, which is why we used computation orbs. Besides, what are you complaining about? You got a new movement technique out of it didn't you? You might not be able to fly, but how many shinobi can bounce off nothing and change direction in midair?"  
  
"I still end up falling flat half the time," Sakura grumbled.  
  
"You're getting better. By the time graduation comes, it will be second nature."  
  
"Are you sure I can't show off to Ino?"  
  
"Not until you have it down flawlessly. You don't want to embarrass yourself."  
  
"Mm-hm," hummed Sakura happily. "She will be so surprised when I show her!" Her face grew a bit sadder. "Do you think Sasuke would be impressed as well?"  
  
"He's ignored you even though you've made enormous strides in your physical and combat scores. I think at this point the only thing he'll notice past his self-centered brooding is you kicking his ass."  
  
"Are... are you sure that's the way to go about it?"  
  
"Positive! That genealogy said every wife to a senior Uchiha has been at least a chunin by age fifteen! Of course, their family tree is more like a ladder, but at least that's one challenge you don't have to overcome."  
  
Sakura directed a frown at her inner voice. "Are you sure it's not because you're upset he refuses to acknowledge our improvement?"  
  
"Of course not! Would I be that petty?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
"Well, if I am being petty, it is on your behalf, my apprentice. Now, enough goofing off. With the increased flexibility of chakra over magic, it should be perfectly possible to convert the Clone technique into a more generalized optical illusion."  
  
"It's not that easy! The clone technique echoes the user's own body to create the illusion! Now I'm replacing that ready-made model with a construct I have to create in my head! Just getting the technique to use a mental image as a source rather than my physical body was a nightmare! You should know, you helped me put the theory together!"  
  
"Yes, well, unless you can get yourself apprenticed to a genjutsu specialist anytime soon, this is the only way we're going to get some decent illusions under our belt."  
  
"I could just wait until I graduate and get a jounin-sensei and learn genjutsu properly from him, instead of trying to reinvent the wheel."  
  
"Now you're arguing just for the sake of it. You read the duties of jounin-sensei in the manuals. They are there to provide leadership and guidance - but absolutely no mention that they are obligated to teach genin new techniques. If we're particularly unlucky, we'll end up with a jackass who does the bare minimum and otherwise leaves us to our own devices."  
  
Grumbling to herself, Sakura returned to her training. Perhaps sensing her lowering mood, Tanya spoke a few minutes later. "Look on the bright side. The teachers are already permitting you to spar with the boys. Give it a couple more weeks, and you might get put up against Sasuke. That's your chance to make sure he can no longer ignore you."  
  
Sakura immediately brightened up at the reminder of her recent success. Normally, the boys and girls were segregated for taijutsu spars. But after Sakura had spent months thrashing every girl in class including the Hyuga heiress, the teachers had finally acquiesced to her demand to spar with the boys.  
  
Of course, her success had come with downsides. Both Ino and Hinata seemed to have been inspired (or shamed) by her success, because they were throwing themselves into their training much harder than before. Ino had already declared her intention to join Sakura on the boys' side, and though Hinata was as quiet as ever, there was a determined air about her that suggested similar thoughts.  
  
Sakura scowled furiously and focused even harder on her training. She was not going to lose this contest! Her true love was at stake!  
  


* * *

  
  
It was taking everything she had not to gloat. There was only four months left until graduation, but Sakura had done it! Iruka-sensei had just signaled her to step into the ring with her true love!  
  
"Thank god we didn't get that suck-up Mizuki today," grumbled Tanya.  
  
Sakura agreed, Mizuki was annoying. He always seemed to enjoy putting Sasuke up against Naruto and then fawning over the inevitable victory. Even more annoyingly, no one could really complain, since Naruto was always eager to fight, and technically he was in the top quarter of the taijutsu class. Naruto had no skill and would use his incredible toughness to win battles of attrition against any opponent lacking finishing power, which made him absolutely hopeless against an opponent with actual talent.  
  
As they entered the sparring circle, Tanya spoke crisply, "All right, break it down. What are his advantages over us?"  
  
"Superior strength, speed, talent, training, experience, and stamina. And he probably eats better," Sakura snarked back mentally.  
  
"And his weakness?"  
  
"Overconfidence?"  
  
"His or ours?"  
  
"I'll take what I can get." Sakura considered it a small victory to get a genuine chuckle from Tanya.  
  
"So. Plan A?"  
  
"Plan A," Sakura agreed. Truth be told, plans B through D amounted to, 'Plan A, but sneakier'. Not that sneakiness was likely to work if Sasuke figured them out. "And don't forget your promise!"  
  
There was a long moment of silence, and then Tanya replied, "I won't."  
  


* * *

  
  
The fight, when it happened, was over quickly. Sasuke started the fight the same way he did with any opponent he didn't respect - a lightning fast blitz.  
  
Sakura immediately fell into a heightened mental state - the very first of Tanya's spells she had learned - and picked her moment to countercharge, letting Sasuke's fist brush by her face.  
  
Sasuke immediately switched to defense, not that it mattered. Sakura wasn't looking to hit him, only to establish a firm grip. Before Sasuke realized what was happening, Sakura had stuck her feet to the ground with chakra, and _heaved_.  
  
Even a girl as small as Sakura could lift an impressive amount of weight if she had picked up the trick of strengthening herself with chakra. Combined with a weak Reinforcement spell running through the Type 95, she could deadlift way more than Sasuke's body weight. Credit to him, Sasuke flipped through the air and stuck a perfect landing. He also did it over a foot outside the arena.  
  
Iruka-sensei seemed almost disbelieving as he declared Sakura the winner. Sakura though was far more interested in Sasuke's reaction. Her heart fell as she read frustration, anger, and resentment, but not an ounce of admiration.  
  


* * *

  
  
Sitting alone in her room, Sakura listened as Tanya tried to comfort her. Sakura could always tell when Tanya was trying to be sympathetic, because she was so bad at it. ".... and really, what does it matter what a little boy thinks of you anyway? It should be mature, intelligent _men_ you should be looking for...."  
  
"Enough, Tanya." Sakura cut her off. "I'm not that upset. If Sasuke can't appreciate my strength, I'll find something else. In the meantime, you have a promise to keep. You said you'd tell me a bit about how you got stuck in the Type 95."  
  
"Ah. That. Well, the simple answer is I failed to heed the lesson of Arachne."  
  
"Arachne?"  
  
"An ancient tale. It goes something like this. There was once Arachne, a weaver of such great talent that she thought herself equal to Athena, a kami of weaving. Athena didn't like that, and challenged her to a weaving contest. During the contest, Arachne wove a tapestry depicting the many true tales of how the local kami had tricked and hurt humans - and she did it with skill surpassing Athena's. Athena, however, was a very sore loser. She destroyed Arachne's work and hurt her and shamed her. When Arachne tried to kill herself to escape her torment, Athena cursed her into the form of a spider to live out her life a mindless insect."  
  
"So... the lesson is, don't piss off kami?"  
  
"That. And also, it doesn't matter if you're in the right. The powerful can only be held accountable if you have power of your own. I used to live in a world of rules and laws, so I'd forgotten that lesson. But you, Sakura, live in a village which peddles violence for cash. So either become powerful, or accept being the plaything of the powerful. Otherwise you'll end up like Arachne. Or me."  
  
There both sat in silence for a long time. Then Sakura said, "You know Tanya, I like to think I've come to know you quite a bit."  
  
"So?"  
  
"So, I don't think you've learned your lesson at all. You're still fighting, aren't you?"  
  
Tanya did not reply. She did not speak for the rest of the night. It would be a long time before either of them brought up the topic again.


	3. Chapter 3

**Shoulder Devil Ch. 3**  
  
"He didn't even look at me," came the sad whine. "Even though I fought so hard!"  
  
Sakura sighed and gave her best friend a hug. "Come on Ino, don't be sad. He doesn't look at anyone. But at least the teachers let you spar with him! That shows how much you've improved!"  
  
"Hmmm..." Ino melted into the hug, then muttered, "It hurts."  
  
"Where?"  
  
"My back from when he knocked me down."  
  
Sakura snorted. "You just want another backrub." Sometimes Sakura regretted using Ino to test the tips on using pressure points that she'd picked up from a medical text. Now the girl would use any excuse to talk Sakura into giving her a massage, and she was utterly shameless about it.  
  
Sure enough, Ino was smirking at her, "Well then, you shouldn't be so good at it." Then she was pouting at her with watery eyes. "Besides, the love of my life just beat me up in a spar. As my best friend, isn't it your job to help comfort me?"  
  
Sakura didn't bother holding back her eye roll. "And where were you when Sasuke kicked my butt two weeks ago?"  
  
Ino turned up her nose. "That's entirely deserved after the way you cheated him out of a victory that first time."  
  
Before meeting the soul inside the clockwork jewel, Sakura would either have left in a huff or meekly accepted that remark. Now she placed a hand on Ino's shoulder and squeezed down on her collarbone with chakra-enhanced strength.  
  
Ignoring the resulting whimper Sakura cheerfully said, "Ino, you're right. Perhaps I should take this opportunity to train my pressure point technique. After all, there's so many interesting points on your body I haven't tried yet."  
  
"Ow ow ow I'm sorry I'm sorry I didn't mean it!"  
  
Sakura huffed and relented. Ino scrunched up her face as she rubbed her shoulder. "Mou, so mean Sakura! Can't you take a joke?"  
  
"My tolerance for your jokes is at about the same level as your tolerance for pain." Sakura teased.  
  
"Hmph. What happened to that sweet shy girl I used to know? I want old Sakura back!"  
  
Sakura only chuckled. There had been no heat in Ino's words, only artificial whining. Over the last several months Sakura had asserted herself more and more within her social circle. She had not noticed it at the time, but some of Tanya's mannerisms - particularly her attitude of taking absolutely no shit from anyone - had rubbed off on her own. However, instead of offending Ino, it only seemed to make her happier. The two of them regularly traded barbs that would send any other girl running in tears, yet their friendship only seemed to grow stronger for it. Even their newfound ambition to climb the taijutsu rankings only brought them closer together instead of causing more rivalry.  
  
Sakura mentally sighed as she started carefully working on the muscles of Ino's back. " _At least one of my relationships is working out."_ she mentally commented to the Type-95 jewel hidden under her clothing.  
  
 _"Well, it's arguably the more important one."_ came the voice of Tanya von Degurechaff. _"Besides, I told you the reason Sasuke is probably ignoring all girls is because he simply hasn't gone through puberty yet. He's probably still at the 'girls are icky' stage. Late bloomers are a thing, you know?"_  
  
Sakura tried not to let her frustration show on her face. Since that first time she had been up against Sasuke twice. She had lost both times. The trick with the sparring ring would only ever have worked once, so she didn't embarrass herself trying to repeat it. But without it, her defeat was almost assured given Sasuke's massive advantages in talent and training. Even so, she had surprised herself. She'd managed to drag out both spars for minutes, landing several solid hits before going down. Furthermore, she'd managed to rack up wins against every other top taijutsu ranker. It was a far better performance than she had ever believed herself capable of, yet instead of finding it attractive Sasuke just seemed frustrated at her growth.  
  
 _"Maybe he doesn't like strong girls after all? Maybe that's not his type?"_ Sakura sent.  
  
 _"Since he's never shown any interest in any girl, there's no way of actually knowing his type. I'd say you'd have an easier time proving he prefers his own gender."  
  
"Don't even joke about that!"  
  
"Ah, not a fan of yaoi? Strange, I always thought girls were into that sort of thing."  
  
"Ugh! Don't tell me you like that stuff?"  
  
"No. But then I was never a very normal girl."_  
  
As Sakura continued working the kinks out of Ino's back and bantering with Tanya, she appreciated how both her friends helped distract her from her romantic problems. Still, she couldn't help but keep an eye on the calendar. The date of the final exams was only two months away. After that, they'd all be broken up into teams and it would be much harder to catch Sasuke's eye then. She really hoped Tanya was right about him being a late bloomer, because she refused to accept the other theory.  
  


* * *

"HEY SAKURA!"  
  
"ARGH!" The dark green glow around her hands flew out of control, and the apple she'd been working on withered and fell apart. Sakura whirled around in a fury. "GODDAMIT NARUTO! Can't you ever learn to talk in a normal voice? I'm not deaf!"  
  
In a fine twist of irony, Sakura had actually developed some tolerance to the loud and annoying boy over the last year. This was not because he had improved his behavior, but because of how virulently Tanya hated him. So vitriolic were Tanya's rants about the blond boy, Sakura had actually found herself defending him, pointing out that many of the faults that Tanya identified could only ever be fixed by a good role model, something Naruto, as an orphan, lacked. Since then she'd tried to be a bit more patient with him, but sometimes, like now, he made it very hard. Medical chakra was dangerous enough without someone yelling in her ear.  
  
Naruto rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "Sorry, Sakura! But I saw you and I just wanted to say hi! And hey, you want to come Ichiraku Ramen with me? They're having a special sale! It could be our first date...."  
  
Of course, the trouble with trying to be patient with Naruto was just how quickly he could burn through it. He was almost as frustrating as Sasuke. Sometimes, Naruto could show flashes of genuine insight. And then he'd almost immediately regress to being a buffoon.  
  
"Naruto," Sakura bit out. "We have been over this before. Just because I'm willing to talk to you doesn't mean I want to go on a date with you! What sane girl would?!" She hadn't meant to add that last line, but annoyance loosened her tongue.  
  
"Hey! I'm going to be Hokage you know! Everyone will look up to me then!"  
  
Sakura felt something snap. Today had been a day of ninjutsu practice in class, and Naruto had again demonstrated he couldn't do the Clone technique to save his life. That he would have the sheer unmitigated gall to make such a boast when Sakura was finding so much difficulty self-teaching anything beyond the Academy basics was a step too far.  
  
Her voice was steady and calm as she spoke. "I don't believe you."  
  
"Huh?"  
  
"I don't believe you when you say you'll be Hokage. I've never believed you. Do you know why?"  
  
"Look, just 'cos I'm last in class - "  
  
"No Naruto. It has nothing to do with you being last. It's because you. Never. Try."  
  
"What? 'Course I try! Naruto Uzumaki never gives up! That's my ninja way!"  
  
"Liar." Sakura's hiss was almost serpentine, and her face must not be any better, judging by how Naruto took a step back. "All you do is the exact same thing, over and over again, and then acting surprised when it doesn't work. That's not trying! That's just being lazy! You tell everyone that you never give up, but the truth is, you're too lazy to try anything new!"  
  
"T-that's not..."  
  
"You keep asking me out for a date in the exact same way. I say no every time, yet you never even try to figure out what you did wrong. I've called you too loud a hundred times, yet you still can't control your volume! There's only six weeks left until the finals, and you still can't do the Clone! Yet instead of practicing or trying to get help from Iruka sensei, you're here wasting my time!"  
  
Naruto was looking down at the ground now. As Sakura paused to take breath, he mumbled something. "What was that?" Sakura asked.  
  
"I said, I've tried the Clone tons of times. I just can't make it work," Naruto muttered.  
  
Sakura raised an unimpressed eyebrow. "So you just gave up? I thought Naruto Uzumaki never gives up?"  
  
Watching Naruto's face turn red with shame, Sakura decided to drive home the point. "Naruto, do you know I spend an hour each day working on my chakra control and techniques, even on school days?"  
  
"Oh..umm..."  
  
"Do you know why I spend an hour a day on it?"  
  
"So you can get real good at it?"  
  
"No Naruto. The reason I spend an hour on it, is because I can't spend more time training without getting chakra exhaustion. I have so many things I want to train, and I can't because of my natural limits. Do you know how jealous I am of you?"  
  
"Of me??"  
  
"Yes, you! You can't sense chakra can you? Well I can, just a little bit, and even that's enough for me to tell that you have more chakra than anyone in the academy! Even Iruka-sensei!"  
  
"R-really?"  
  
"Yes! And what do you do with all that chakra? Nothing! You waste time goofing around and pranking people and bothering me! You could easily spend all day playing around with chakra and hand signs and trying to figure something that worked, but you don't! And that's why you'll never be Hokage! Because whenever something gets too hard, you just keep trying the same thing and whining about it instead of actually using your brains to come up with a new idea!"  
  
"Y-yeah? Well I'll do it! Just watch! I'll come up with some awesome stuff!"  
  
"Don't say it, idiot. Just do it. And while we're at it, when's the last time you sat down to study your text books?"  
  
"Uhhh...."  
  
Sakura sneered. "Let me guess, you had a hard time understanding the material, so you just called it boring and gave up, didn't you? You sure do give up a lot."  
  
That stung Naruto into showing a bit of anger. "Yeah well why do we even need to learn all that useless stuff?"  
  
"Oh? So you're suddenly smarter than the Hokage who set up the academy and all the sensei who teach in it? You magically know what is useful and what isn't?" Sakura sighed deeply, growing weary of this argument. She'd forgotten how stubborn the idiot could be. "Just... just go away Naruto. You have all the chakra in the world, you actually somehow got to be Iruka-sensei's friend... and yet in spite of all that, you never learn anything, you never try anything new, you just keep half-assing everything and then complaining when it doesn't work."  
  
Something about Sakura's tired tone got through Naruto's thick skull when all her earlier yelling hadn't. He blinked and sniffled, then wiping his eyes he said, "Yeah? Well you'll see! I'm gonna work so hard, I'll figure out all sorts of awesome ideas! It's the promise of a lifetime!" With that declaration, he turned and ran off.  
  
Sakura was tempted to get in the last word and point out the finals were only in six weeks, but she decided she didn't want to bother. She sighed again, feeling a bit guilty. Unlike many of the brats in her class, Naruto was never malicious. It was just that under the buffoonery she could see glimpses of genuine talent that Naruto was just carelessly wasting. It was frustrating for her and it drove Tanya into a frothing fury.  
  
And speak of the devil... _"I have to admit, I am impressed,"_ came the spirit's voice. _"I do believe you've managed to simultaneously get rid of that annoyance and eliminate what little chance he had of graduating the academy."  
  
"You don't know that! He could actually figure out where he's going wrong. Combine it with some serious cramming, and he could get a decent grade."  
  
"Hah! As if! This is Naruto we're talking about! If he had six months and a proper training plan he might get somewhere. With only six weeks? He'd have to literally work night and day or get ridiculously lucky to actually make any improvement. And what are the chances of that? No, he's just going to waste time experimenting instead of actually studying. With any luck, he'll be too embarrassed to talk to us any more after he flunks the final."_  
  
Sakura's guilt only grew worse. But not enough to waste time holding Naruto's hand. She had her own concerns. Like figuring out how to safely use medical chakra. Not to heal, of course. Healing someone else with chakra took months of intensive training. Trying to apply medical chakra without training would at best result in no effect, and at worst give the patient hyper-cancer. And that's leaving out the very real danger of chakra backlash burning out the medic's own coils.  
  
But, as Tanya pointed, hyper-cancer or instant blood poisoning could be incredibly useful against enemies. If Sakura could just figure out how to rapidly shove medical chakra into someone without suffering any backlash, she might be able to mess them up something fierce. Of course, without proper medical training there would be no way of predicting what random applications of medical chakra would do to a person. And getting that medical training was extremely expensive without recommendations from higher up, meaning she would have to wait to get a jounin-sensei before asking. Still, with proper care and careful experimentation, she might have something useful by graduation.  
  
Nodding with determination and putting Naruto out of her mind, Sakura reached into her pack and brought out another apple.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the last chapter that's been commissioned so far. Once again, thanks to my Patrons!

**Chapter 4**  
  
Sakura sighed and cracked her knuckles after putting down her pen. _"That was surprisingly easy,"_ she mentally addressed her spiritual passenger.  
  
 _"Indeed. Even Naruto might have a chance of passing this portion of the test. Assuming he bothered to study,"_ came Tanya's voice in her mind.  
  
Sakura glanced at the blonde two rows away. Naruto was focusing furiously as he scribbled away, tongue sticking out one corner of his mouth. _"He's certainly been more focused recently. Who knows, maybe a miracle will happen."  
  
"Don't wish for that. If he passes he might end up on our team."  
  
"I see what you mean. Naruto is best taken in small doses,"_ observed Sakura, trying to project her amusement to her companion.  
  
 _"Never mind his personality. Would you like having to place your life in his hands?"_ came the dark response.  
  
Sakura thought about having to rely on Naruto to watch her back on a mission, and grimaced. _"Point."_  
  
Letting the conversation lapse, Sakura took a minute to look over her paper. Even though written tests came the easiest to her, that was no reason to be careless. This was the final test for becoming a shinobi of Konoha, after all.  
  
After the written test came the weapon and taijutsu exam. In the weapon test she came just shy of a perfect score - there were only so many things Sakura had time to train, and throwing weapons just did not come naturally to her. She was still 4th in class after Sasuke, Shino, and Hinata. Taijutsu was a simple test, requiring everyone to last a minute in the ring with an examiner who was deliberately going easy on them, with full marks going to those who lasted a full three minutes. Tanya liked it because they could get full marks with only moderate effort, and she scoffed at Sasuke who spent the entire three minutes going all out. Sakura simply ignored Tanya's snide remarks and enjoyed the show of martial skill.  
  
However, it was the ninjutsu test they were both looking forward to. It was the one opportunity they had to show off a bit, since passing might require only the bare minimum, but your final score depended on how much you could impress the examiners. Sakura didn't plan to reveal everything, but she and Tanya both agreed that a top score was worth revealing a few cards.  
  
First came the Transformation test, where the goal was to emulate one of the teachers. No room for improv there, so Sakura focused on making it as flawless as possible. Then she was asked to demonstrate the Clone technique. Now, each technique was only supposed to be done one at a time, but this was Sakura's chance. She performed the Clone technique while keeping the Transformation up, leaving three Iruka Umino's looking back at the teachers.  
  
Both teachers blinked but took it in stride. Then came the request for the Substitution, and all three Iruka's raised their hands and ran through the hand signs. There were three puffs of smoke and a clatter, and when the smoke cleared three chairs had replaced the three figures. Looking around, the teachers Iruka and Mizuki saw the three transformed Sakura's further back in the room.  
  
"That's amazing!" exclaimed Iruka effusively. "How did you get your clones to perform the Substitution?!"  
  
"I didn't," came an excellent facsimile of Iruka's voice from one of the figures. Then there was a relaxing of tension, and the other two Iruka's disappeared in a burst of chakra smoke... as did two of the chairs. "I just created two more clones that looked like chairs." Even as she spoke, Sakura relaxed the transformation, letting her teacher's seeming fade. At the same time, her voice smoothly transitioned from Iruka's adult tones to her own childish one.  
  
Figuring out how to modify her voice on the fly had taken Sakura almost as much training time as the rest of the tricks put together, but it was worth it to see her teachers' faces. Really though, what's the point of the transformation if you can't sound like the person you're pretending to be? Even Naruto had figured that one out, in spite of the perverted uses he put it to with his so-called Centerfold technique.  
  
Now, though, was the time to bask in some well-earned praise, as Iruka and Mizuki both complimented her on managing to perform all three techniques at the same time.  
  
Once she got outside, her parents were waiting to congratulate her. Even her mother was effusive in her praise, doing her best to hide her reservations about a shinobi career, at least for this one day. Ino's father Inoichi Yamanaka also came by to congratulate her. One part of Sakura was happy at having received acknowledgement from the head of one of Konoha's most respected shinobi clans, but the other part was disgruntled because she could almost feel the calculations running through Tanya's head. No matter how much the soul in the jewel might have helped her, there were times when Tanya's habit of reducing interpersonal relationships to a cost-benefit analysis left Sakura feeling dirty inside. After the congratulations subsided, Inoichi invited the Haruno's to wait for Ino alongside him, and Sakura didn't need Tanya's urging to agree.  
  
However, one thing Sakura had forgotten was that, alphabetically speaking, Naruto was going to finish his testing before Ino. When the blonde boy bounced out of the building, shiny new forehead protector on his head, he immediately made a beeline for Sakura. "Sakura! Look! I passed! I told you I could do it!"  
  
 _"W-what? How?! That idiot was hopeless!"_  
  
Hearing the normally calm Tanya splutter in shock pretty much made Sakura's day. _"Not so useless now, huh?"_ she thought smugly, before replying out loud to Naruto, "Congratulations, Naruto! Did you get the Clone technique working after all?"  
  
"Heh heh, yeah, I did! And it was thanks to you! You told me to start trying new stuff! So I did and I came up with a way to do it!"  
  
"Oh," murmured Inoichi. "I didn't know you were friends with Naruto as well, Sakura."  
  
 _"Wait, WHAT? How does Inoichi Yamanaka of all people know Naruto?"_ came Tanya's surprised shout. Sakura was surprised as well, but she didn't reply, focused on the conversation.  
  
"Eh? Who are you?" came Naruto's response as he scrunched up his face in puzzlement.  
  
"Naruto! Be polite!" barked Sakura. Then turning to Inoichi she said, "Please forgive Naruto, his manners are a bit rough. Naruto, this is Inoichi Yamanaka, he's Ino's father and head of the Yamanaka Clan. Inoichi sir, this is Naruto Uzumaki. He's a classmate of mine, and one of the more... unique... characters in my class."  
  
"Whoa! You're the head of ninja clan! Then you must be a pretty awesome ninja!" exclaimed Naruto, eyes wide.  
  
"I do all right," Inoichi chuckled in reply to Naruto's declaration. "And it sounds like you're getting there too."  
  
"Thanks, mister! You know, you're a lot nicer than Ino. She's kinda stuck-up and keeps acting like she's the best girl in class or something." Sakura could only join Tanya in mentally despairing at Naruto's utter lack of tact. Even her parents' faces grew stiff in secondhand embarrassment.  
  
Inoichi only smiled wryly at this. "Well, I'm her dad, so she'll always be best girl to me," he replied. "But enough about that. You were telling us how Sakura helped you?"  
  
"Yeah! Well, she told me if doing stuff one way don't work, I ought to try it differently! So instead of trying to make one clone at a time, I tried making _lots_ of clones instead! I must've made a thousand of them the first time I tried!"  
  
"And... that worked?" Given how much chakra Sakura had sensed in him she could believe Naruto could make a thousand clones. But how that would help him make a clone good enough to pass the test escaped her.  
  
"Well... most of them sucked just as much as before. But some of them actually looked halfway right! I'd never done that before! So I spent like a couple of weeks trying and making as many as I could each time! And now, when I make like a few hundred, maybe seven or ten of them actually look all right! And since we only had to make two good clones for the finals, Iruka sensei agreed that was good enough to pass!"  
  
 _"Good grief, he literally passed by relying on the law of averages. Otherwise known as dumb luck,"_ groaned Tanya.  
  
Sakura could admit to feeling a bit of disbelief herself. She knew Naruto had a lot of chakra, but enough to keep spamming a technique like that? She was also jealous. In spite of years of effort, she knew her chakra stores were still short of someone like Sasuke, let alone Naruto. Her stamina had always been the factor limiting her ability to practice and develop her own techniques, and here was Naruto tossing techniques out in the hundreds. He didn't even look winded! _"Life just isn't fair,"_ she mentally lamented.  
  
"Oh my, that's quite clever Naruto. Well done," complimented Inoichi.  
  
"Eheheh, thanks! But I couldn'ta done it without Sakura's help! Sakura, wanna go get some ramen? It's not a date!" Naruto quickly held up his hands to prevent Sakura's reflexive comeback. "I just really wanna say thank you for your help! My treat!"  
  
Sakura sighed. At least he was learning. "I appreciate the offer Naruto, but I'm waiting for Ino. I can't go now."  
  
"Oh, well, then I'll wait with you!"  
  
"I thought Ino was too stuck-up for you?"  
  
"Eh, she's your friend, she can't be that bad!"  
  
Before Sakura could figure out another excuse to get rid of Naruto, Ino came walking out, new forehead protector in place.  
  
"Hey Sakura, you waited for me! Wait, what's the idiot doing here?"  
  
"OI! Who you calling idiot?!"  
  
"It should be obvious - "  
  
"Ino dear," Inoichi broke in. "You really shouldn't be so rude to Sakura's other friends. Especially since she helped him pass the test."  
  
Sakura could feel her face redden as Ino turned to her, eyes gleaming at the prospect of fresh gossip. Did Inoichi really have to word it like that? He made her sound like Naruto's bosom friend instead of a long-suffering acquaintance!  
  
"Oh? You and Naruto are friends? Since when did this happen?" asked Ino sweetly.  
  
"Umm.... well, it's a long story... and our parents all have places to be, so some other time?"  
  
"Actually, I was thinking," broke in Inoichi. "Sakura, you are Ino's best friend. Perhaps you and your family could join us for this little get-together I had planned? Oh, and Naruto is invited as well."  
  
"What? I am?" Naruto's flabbergasted expression certainly matched Sakura's mental shock. _What was the man playing at?_  
  
Sakura's father blinked in surprise. "Well, we wouldn't want to intrude on a private clan affair..."  
  
"Oh, hardly. It's just an informal get-together between friends to celebrate our children passing the academy. There's certainly no reason you can't join us. That is, assuming you didn't already have plans for the day?"  
  
Her parents looked at each other, then her father bowed. "We would be honored, Yamanaka-san."  
  
As the group toddled after Inoichi, Sakura ignored Ino's increasingly curious glances to focus on her mental conversation. _"All right, Tanya, what just happened? I don't think he'd decided to invite us until he heard what Naruto said."  
  
"I'm puzzled too,"_ admitted Tanya. _"Maybe he's just curious about Naruto's method?"_  
  
There wasn't much conversation, even Naruto seemed subdued by the unexpected situation. Eventually they ended up at a fancy Akimichi-run restaurant, Sakura vaguely remembering having gone there once when her father wanted to celebrate a successful business deal.  
  
It was here Sakura learned that 'informal get-together' was apparently code for a dinner meeting between three clan heads and their heirs. Sakura had met Shikamaru Nara and Choji Akimichi before. One couldn't be close friends with Ino without getting to know the two boys, because no matter how much Ino complained about their laziness she was still mindful of the fact that their clans were closely allied to the Yamanaka. But Sakura had only ever met the Nara and Akimichi clan heads in passing. Never had she dreamed that she would be attending dinner with them and Inoichi. And certainly not while still wearing her rather plain and sweat-stained workout clothes.  
  
Thankfully Inoichi seemed to have been honest about the informal part, since no one was dressed in anything better than working clothes. Even better, Naruto actually seemed to know and like Shikamaru and Choji. He greeted them in his usual boisterous manner, and the friendly barbs traded between him and Shikamaru served to break the ice.  
  
The whole outing turned out surprisingly well. The food was excellent, and all three clan heads were engaging conversationalists in their own way, and none of them seemed inclined to talk down to her. She could almost feel Tanya radiating approval as Sakura got the Akimichi clan head, Chouza, to give a brief but enlightening lecture on optimizing shinobi nutrition plans. _"Allowing your superiors to talk about things that interest them is an easy way to gain their approval,"_ came the sage voice inside her head.  
  
 _"Hey, this is actually pretty interesting and useful!"_ shot back Sakura.  
  
 _"Even better. Two birds with one stone."_  
  
There was one thing that Sakura noticed though. All three of the clan heads were definitely paying attention to Naruto. It was a subtle thing, but Inoichi soon had Naruto chattering away happily about the various 'experiments' with chakra he had been doing in the last several weeks. Along the way, Naruto ended up spilling almost everything he'd been recently doing, including his interactions with Sakura.  
  
Apart from that oddity, the whole evening passed very enjoyably. It was after she was back home and in her bedroom that Sakura decided to address the strange attention Naruto seemed to have garnered.  
  
 _"Ah, so you noticed it too?"_ asked Tanya.  
 _  
"Yes. It's almost like they knew Naruto, or at least about him."  
  
"Most likely they've heard about his pranks, or from their children."  
  
"Are you sure that's what it is? They seemed almost... cautious."  
  
"You're overthinking it. They probably spotted something about Naruto's experiments that piqued their interest. You know what that means, right?"_  
  
Sakura sighed. _"You want us to spend more time with him?"  
  
"Of course. If something about his crazy experiments caught the eye of ninja clan heads, we need to get in on it."  
  
"Wouldn't they have mentioned something?"  
  
"Of course not. They won't help him unless they can see a way to benefit their clans from it."  
  
"Isn't that what we're doing?"  
  
"Well, you've already helped him once. I'd say we're owed. Besides, think of how much Naruto could achieve if we were there to guide his experiments. I know you're curious yourself,"_ wheedled Tanya.  
 _  
"I thought you hated him."  
  
"That was when he was a lazy idiot who refused to better himself. Now that he's gotten a bit more serious, he's worth a bit of our time."  
  
"You know, sometimes I get the feeling you might have deserved to get locked up."  
  
"Now that's just rude. I'll have you know I've never willingly broken any rules of the society I lived in!"  
  
"Yes, yes. Once team assignments are done I'll see if I have time to keep Naruto from blowing himself up."_ Sakura rolled her eyes at Tanya's self-righteousness before getting ready for bed. Team assignments would be in just a couple of days, and she couldn't wait!


	5. Chapter 5

_“I’m bored,”_ thought Sakura. _“Aren’t you bored?”_

_“All the time,”_ came Tanya’s voice. _“I can only sense the world through you, and most of the time you’re focusing on things I have no interest in. Like Sasuke.”_

_“Will you give it a rest already?”_

_“You squealed loud enough to wake up Shikamaru when they announced the teams. I’m never going to let you live it down.”_

Sakura scowled into her desk. She didn’t need Tanya to tell her she’d made a spectacle of herself. She couldn’t help it. No matter how much Tanya might advise her to play it cool, she still loved Sasuke, and her reaction had been quite vocal when Iruka-sensei had named him one of her team members. 

At least Ino had been too busy laughing at her to be upset about not being on Sasuke’s team herself.

Sighing to herself, Sakura gave a sidelong glance to her teammates. Sasuke was in the exact same position he had been an hour ago, chin resting on folded fingers as he glared out the window. Naruto had long since abandoned his chair and was pacing up and down with a thunderous scowl on his face.

Neither of them looked happy and she couldn’t blame them. Team assignments had been over two hours ago. Since then, the jounin-sensei for all the other teams had collected them and left. Even Iruka and Mizuki had left an hour ago. That just left them, Genin Team 7, waiting for their missing sensei.

_“Seriously, where is he? You’d think someone as famous as him would learn to be on time!”_

Kakashi Hatake was a name well known to Sakura. Not from the academy or the library - as she and Tanya had already discovered, both sources were singularly unhelpful when it came to learning about recent history. Instead, Kakashi Hatake was a name that had come up often whenever Sakura managed to strike up a conversation on who the best shinobi in Konoha were (apart from the Hokage, who was universally acknowledged as The Strongest). 

Tanya liked to call it intelligence-gathering, but Sakura thought it was little more than gossip. Like Ino, a number of her schoolmates came from major clans, and they picked up a lot of information through simple osmosis. Once Sakura got past her natural shyness, getting them to start talking about the most impressive shinobi they knew of wasn’t particularly hard. 

It was even easier with the academy sensei. All Sakura had to do was look like a wide-eyed naif eager to learn about her heroes, and all her teachers would easily open up about the jounin they had worked with. None of them were so careless as to drop detailed information, but even the general rumors they were willing to share was far more than a civilian-born like her would ever normally hear about.

Between these two sources, Sakura had managed to build up quite a dossier on Konoha’s well-known shinobi, and Kakashi Hatake was a name that came up often. The youngest academy graduate and chunin in Konoha history, ninjutsu specialist, hero of the Third Shinobi War, and now considered one of the strongest shinobi in the village. However, along with his battle prowess, he was also known for his eccentricity. Exactly what form this eccentricity took remained a mystery to her. Sakura’s adult interlocutors would hurriedly change the subject, while her classmates could only confirm that their parents described him as odd without going into details.

_“Do not underestimate Hatake. Who knows what vital work he may have been doing? I’m sure he has his reasons for being late. Instead of wasting time, why don’t you try some self-training? You need to be ready to impress him when he shows!”_

That was another thing. Tanya seemed to have developed an almost surprising amount of interest regarding Hatake. Ever since she learned he’d made chunin at six, Tanya had pushed Sakura to investigate the man. When asked why, Tanya refused to give a straight answer. The closest to an explanation Sakura got was a mumbled ‘He might be like me’. On the face of it, that ought to mean Tanya was simply curious about someone else who had been a child prodigy fighting through a war. But Sakura couldn’t help but feel Tanya meant something else.

“DAMMIT I’M BORED! WHERE THE HELL IS HE?!”

Sakura was almost knocked out of her seat as Naruto’s impatience finally boiled over. 

“You’re too loud, idiot,” came Sasuke’s disdainful drawl.

“Oh yeah? Wanna make something out of it, bastard?!”

_I can’t believe those two_. Years of experience told Sakura that the two boys were on the verge of yet another of their many brawls. Which was all well and good when they were still in the academy, but was completely unacceptable now that they were full-fledged shinobi. Seriously, who on earth thought it was a good idea to put these two on the same team?

_“You need to stop them.”_ came Tanya’s voice.

_“What? Why?”_

_“Because, like it or not, they are now part of your team. Their behavior reflects on you as well.”_

Sakura hated that Tanya was right, but she was. Which meant Sakura had to play peacemaker. Joy.

First step would be to distract the two boys before one of them threw a punch. A little chakra to her palm, and then she was slamming it down on her table. The thunderous _crack!_ Made both boys jerk and turn around.

Ignoring the fracture she’d put into the table’s surface, Sakura said, “I know you two are bored. I’m bored too. But that’s no reason to behave like children. What do you think it will look like if our jounin-sensei comes in and sees the two of you fighting like kids at a playground?”

Judging by the faint flush on Sasuke’s face, the barb hit home. Naruto, naturally, was completely oblivious to his own immaturity as he whined, “But Sakura! It’s been so long!”

“So? Given who he is, it’s possible Hatake-san got caught up in some extremely vital mission and wasn’t able to make it on time.”

“Huh? You know the guy?”

From the corner of her eye, she could see Sasuke trying and failing to hide his interest. _Yes, he’s noticed me!_ Concealing her happiness, Sakura affected a casual demeanor, “You mean you don’t? Kakashi Hatake is a hero of the Third War. He graduated at five, made chunin at six, jounin at thirteen, and is considered one of the strongest in the village after the Hokage.”

“Woow…” Naruto’s eyes had gone round. “I bet he knows tons of cool jutsus!”

Sakura shrugged. “I suppose? He’s supposed to be a ninjutsu specialist.” 

“Awesome! Say, say, what cool jutsu do you think he’ll teach us first?”

“Well, for all we know, he’s already started teaching us,” proposed Sakura gravely.

“Huh?”

“Maybe the reason he’s late is because he’s teaching us the importance of patience. I mean, maybe he’s hidden out nearby, and is watching us to see what we’re going to do with all this free time he’s given us. Maybe he wants us to learn how to use our time doing something useful, and not start pointless fights?”

“Eheheh…,” Naruto chuckled sheepishly as he rubbed the back of his head. 

“Now,” Sakura said as she sat down on a table in the lotus position, “I am going to meditate and work on my chakra control. I suggest you two find something to do as well so you don’t look like lazy layabouts when our sensei does show.”

“Eh? But what do I work on?”

Sakura sighed. “I don’t know Naruto… push-ups? Sit-ups? Substitution? There’s plenty of tables and chairs here. Maybe work on your transformation?”

_“Work on your Centerfold technique so it’s anatomically accurate.”_

“Work on your Centerfold Technique -” Sakura choked herself off before she could finish repeating Tanya’s interjection. To her horror, both Sasuke and Naruto were staring at her with undisguised surprise. “I...I meant, you should learn how to put some clothes on it! Passing yourself off as a pretty girl is a good disguise, but not if she’s naked!”

_“Good save,”_ came the snickering voice from inside her head.

_“I hate you.”_

Thankfully, the boys accepted her explanation. Naruto immediately started work on his transformation. Sasuke, after a bit of hemming and hawing, settled on practicing his Substitution. Sakura, relieved, turned her attention inwards to her own chakra flow, trying to control the rate at which she released chakra from her chakra points, the key, she had read, to efficient jutsu usage.

Of course, keeping the peace wasn’t quite that simple, especially as the wait stretched into its fourth hour. She had to constantly stay alert to when the boys started growing bored and find some way to keep them occupied. Thankfully, both boys were competitive. Less pleasantly, sometimes they would drag her into their competition.

Which meant when Kakashi Hatake finally poked his silver-haired head through the door, he witnessed his students facing off in synchronized push-ups. 

“176...177…Oh, sensei’s here!” It took considerable effort for Sakura to keep the relief out of her voice. The boys had started competing on physical skills a while ago, and Tanya had managed to talk her into joining in. Now her arms felt like they were falling off and she was hot and sweaty to boot. Hopefully their sensei would see them training hard and cut them some slack. 

Naruto was on his feet in an instant, looking unfairly fresh and ready to go. “Are you our Kakashi-sensei? Why were you late? Sakura says you’re super-strong! What are you gonna teach us first?!”

“Ah...hmm… what can I say? My first impression of you is...you’re all rather youthful!” replied their sensei as he smiled at them with the only part of his face they could see, his right eye. “Meet me on the rooftop in five minutes! Don’t be late!” At which point the man vanished in a flurry of wind.

As they rushed to follow their sensei, Sakura glumly observed to Tanya, _“Yup, definitely eccentric.”_

_“Quite,”_ agreed Tanya. _“I mean, breathing mask and a covered eye? Isn’t that a bit much?”_

After they got to the roof and had fallen into something resembling a line, Kakashi spoke. “Before anything else, let’s introduce ourselves to each other. Likes, dislikes, dreams, hobbies, go!”

There was a moment of silence as the genin all tried to avoid being the first, then Naruto burst out, “Well, what about you? We don’t know anything about you at all!”

“Hmm… alright. My name is Kakashi Hatake. I don’t feel like talking about my likes and dislikes. I don’t really have any dreams, but I do have lots of hobbies.”

_“Sakura! Do you know what this is?”_ Tanya’s excited voice broke into Sakura’s thoughts.

_“Um… our sensei is an oddball?”_

_“No, you silly girl! He’s teaching us about information security! How to answer questions without giving away personal info! Training has already begun!”_

Sakura could feel her heart beating faster. Truly, their sensei deserved his reputation! Eccentric, but a genius! She spared a moment of pity for the two boys who didn’t have a veteran spirit advising them. Naruto had already blurted out his fascination with pranks and ramen and dreams of being Hokage (although it was flattering that he included her among his likes). Sasuke was a bit more reticent, but the sheer hatred in his voice when he spoke of the man he needed to kill said all too much about him as well. 

Finally it was Sakura’s turn, and she was determined not to disappoint. “My name is Sakura Haruno. I like pretty things, and I try not to dislike things just because they are ugly. My dreams are a secret, but as for hobbies… well, I don’t like being bored, so I have a few.”

_“How was that, Tanya?”_

_“Not bad. Technically correct but absolutely nothing useful, just like he showed us.”_

Judging by his eye-smile, sensei approved as well. “Well, now that we know each other,” said Hatake, “It’s time for our first mission, just the four of us. Survival training!”

“What kind of survival training?” asked Sakura suspiciously. Something in the tone of those last words reminded her of Tanya.

“The kind where you will be surviving me!”

At which point he laid it out for them. How there was one more test left before they were confirmed as shinobi. A test which would take place early the next morning at a designated training ground. A test with a 66% failure rate. A test which pitted them against one of the strongest jounin of Konoha.

Their sensei left soon after saying something random about food that Sakura ignored. She didn’t even bother wishing Sasuke farewell as he and Naruto left. She was too busy running through everything she knew, and wondering how on earth her half-baked self-taught methods and academy training could possibly let her succeed against someone like Kakashi Hatake.

_“I thought getting a strong sensei was a good thing! But if we have to go against him for the final test, it’s actually the worst-case scenario!”_ Sakura mentally wailed.

_“Snap out of it, Sakura!”_ came Tanya’s stern voice. _“Do you think this will be the last time you’ll be given ridiculous orders?”_

_“What do you mean?”_

_“We had a saying in the Imperial Army - the difficult we do immediately, the impossible takes only a little longer! Generals have been giving their subordinates impossible orders since time immemorial! But you do them anyway, because that’s what it means to be a soldier!”_

_“I understand... But how?”_

_“Simple. Preparation is key! He’s given us half a day and the location of the test, and even the type of test. Do you think all that was by accident?”_

_“I get it! The test has already begun!”_

_“Foolish girl, it began from the moment he was late! Ah, this really does take me back to the days of the 203rd...Now move!”_

_“Yes ma’am!”_


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter commissioned by my patrons Akitsu91 and Hangwind

**Chapter 6**  
  
It was late in the evening when Sakura returned home. For the last three hours, she had been carefully reconnoitering Training Ground 15, the training ground that Hatake had identified as the site of the next day's test. Now she got out pencil and paper, and started drawing as detailed a map as she could of her sensei's chosen terrain. Not that she needed a map - between her own excellent memory and Tanya's presence, it was very unlikely she would forget a thing. But maps were useful for as a visual aid when making plans. Plus, she might need it to help Sasuke. She'd seen neither of the boys at the grounds, which meant they'd probably foregone the chance to assess the territory.  
  
 _"Seriously, did neither of them pay attention in class? How many times did both sensei go over the importance of scouting?"_ groused Tanya.  
  
 _"Well, you have to admit, those lectures can be a bit boring."  
  
"Boring?! This is literally a matter of life and death!"_  
  
Sakura mentally chuckled. She'd long since grown inured to Tanya's perfectionism. While she did her best to live up to Tanya's standards, Sakura always found it amusing how she held everyone else to the same standards irrespective of age and then grew frustrated when they failed to conform.  
  
 _"If you got your body back, would you become an Academy sensei? I bet you'd be good at it."_ Sakura pointed out.  
  
 _"Are you joking? I had to train rookies once and I almost ended up executing one! No class of brats would survive my first week."  
  
"Well then, maybe you'll become a jounin-sensei instead."  
  
"Becoming a jounin-sensei first requires becoming a jounin. And I don't think that's happening."_  
  
Sakura paused. She'd never really considered what Tanya would do if she got her body back, but she'd always had a vague notion of them being Konoha shinobi together. _"Well, what would you do?"  
  
"That will depend on circumstances. But I'd like a nice steady job that doesn't involve any fighting. Maybe I'll get a job at a bank or something."  
  
"What?! But... you told me you were one of the greatest soldiers of your country! You were a combat prodigy! A hero!"  
  
"And what did all of that get me?"_ Sakura flinched at the sheer anger in Tanya's voice. _"A place in the front lines of two world wars, dead before my thirtieth birthday, and my soul trapped in this thing. Trust me, if you're smart you'll take my advice and push for a medical apprenticeship at the earliest opportunity."_  
  
Tanya's presence gained a distant quality which told Sakura the woman considered the conversation ended. Not wanting to upset her further, Sakura focused on her drawing. A few minutes later, she mentally nudged the spirit. _"Map's done. For tomorrow, I was thinking... full trap and forest loadout?"_  
  
Over the years, Sakura had acquired a lot of equipment at Tanya's behest. Chief among them were two small storage scrolls. They were her most expensive pieces of gear, representing over a year and three birthdays' worth of saved pocket money, and they were worth every penny. With them, she could carry enough equipment to fight a small war. Tanya had gushed over how storage scrolls revolutionized logistics, and acquiring more or learning how to make them herself were on Sakura's to-do list.  
  
Since training ground fifteen had a large central clearing with some worn training posts and dummies, forests on the fringes and a small pond next to the clearing, traps and forest gear seemed the way to go.  
  
Tanya roused herself, all signs of her earlier anger gone. _"Toss in some underwater gear as well. We might be able to take advantage of that pond. How much rations are you carrying?"  
  
"Rations?"  
  
"Sakura, this is a **survival** exercise. Having access to food and water is basic survival!"_  
  
Sakura blushed at having forgotten such an obvious thing. _"Right, a day's worth of food and water..."  
  
"One day? Did Hatake mention a time limit?"  
  
"Ah, no. Three days then?"  
  
"Sounds reasonable, the test can't go on too long."_  
  
Sakura bit her lip. _"That much food and water will take up a lot of space. Can we get everything else in the two scrolls and a backpack?"  
  
"Don't worry, we'll figure it out. Your sensei will have no cause to find us under-prepared!"_  
  


* * *

  
  
Sakura, had shown up at the training ground half an hour early, shortly after sunrise. She was now regretting it. It was over half an hour past their appointed meeting time, both her teammates were fuming, and Naruto had now started whining about being hungry.  
  
"Seriously Naruto, why didn't you eat anything?!" Sakura snapped.  
  
"Sensei said not to because we'd throw up!"  
  
Sakura blinked. "Was that an order?"  
  
"Eh?"  
  
"Did sensei specifically order us not to eat?" asked Sakura, trying to keep the sudden worry out of her voice.  
  
"He said we'd better not eat because we'd puke."  
  
Sakura breathed a sigh of relief. "Oh, so it wasn't an order. He was just exaggerating."  
  
"What?! He was making stuff up?"  
  
"Kind of? I mean, maybe he will make us puke. It's still better to eat though. You can't work hard on an empty stomach, that's basic nutrition."  
  
Sakura caught Sasuke's flinch in the corner of her eye. Turning to look at them both, she asked aghast, "Did neither of you eat breakfast?"  
  
The tightening of Sasuke's posture was answer enough. Praying to the heavens for strength, Sakura pulled her backpack off her shoulders and dug out a pair of ration bars, tasteless nutrient-dense bricks with enough carbs to feed a civilian for an entire day... or a snack for an Akimichi.  
  
After giving their thanks - Naruto enthusiastically and Sasuke grudgingly - the boys chewed through the dry bars with Naruto making exaggerated faces at the taste. "Why are you even carrying this stuff, Sakura?" the blond asked, chugging down half his water bottle to try and get the taste out of his mouth.  
  
"Sensei called it survival training. Food and water is basic survival gear. As are traps, snares, camouflage gear, first aid..." Sakura trailed off as she witnessed the blank stares from the two boys. Then she finally took in the fact that both boys were just wearing their standard weapons pouches. Not even a backpack. Unless their pouches were stuffed with storage scrolls, they were woefully under-equipped compared to her.  
  
 _"Huh,"_ observed Tanya, _"Maybe you'll end up passing the test by default."_  
  
"Y-you're carrying all of that?" squeaked Naruto.  
  
"You're not?!" cried Sakura. "Sensei not only told us this was going to be a survival test with him as the opponent, he even told us where! The least you can do is prepare properly! Did either of you even bother exploring the grounds? No, don't answer, I can guess!" Sakura was wringing her hands in agitation. "I mean, what if that's why he's late? What if he's giving us this chance to prepare the training ground to our advantage? How are we going to do that if neither of you brought _anything_? Are you even trying to pass this test?!"  
  
"Oh man," moaned Naruto, "What do we do? What do we do?"  
  
Sakura took a deep breath. "Look, he was over three hours late yesterday. You guys still have some time. Get back here with whatever extra gear you have!"  
  
"What if he comes while we're gone?" muttered Sasuke.  
  
"Well, what do you think your chances are with whatever is just in your pockets?"  
  
That seemed enough for both boys, as they took off at top speed.  
  
 _"Not bad,"_ mused Tanya. _"Either they'll be back properly equipped, or sensei will come first and disqualify them, leaving you the automatic winner. Win-win."  
  
"Shut up. That's not why I did it and you know it." _growled Sakura.  
  
The next forty minutes was spent in a paroxysm of suspense. Naruto was the first one back, his arms piled high with all sorts of junk.  
  
"What... what is all this?" asked Sakura.  
  
"Eh, well, I didn't really have any of that stuff you said, so I brought all my pranking supplies!" said Naruto. "Oh, and look!" Setting aside the other things, he pulled out several sealed bowls. "I also picked up a dozen orders of Ichiraku's ramen for us! I didn't know what you'd like, so I got some of everything. Miso, pork, beef, chicken, vegetable..."  
  
"That's... very nice, Naruto... but is now really time for ramen?"  
  
"Sure! I'm still hungry! Which ones do you want?"  
  
"Look, let's first go over your stuff and see what Sasuke brings. Then we can eat."  
  
Sakura did her best to ignore the sound of Tanya laughing as she went over Naruto's supplies. As he had promised, there was a lot of paint and glitter. Although, there was also quite a bit of decent gear for setting up traps and tripwires. Not to mention quite a bit of flash powder, a few fireworks, lots of glue and household chemicals... "You know Naruto," mused Sakura, "Some of this stuff has promise..."  
  
"Really?!"  
  
"Yes, I think some of this can be used to create quite the distraction..." before Sakura could elaborate further, Sasuke reappeared.  
  
He didn't have a large amount of stuff. All he had was half a dozen storage scrolls. "Found a lot of stuff. Put them in the scrolls," he muttered, handing them over.  
  
"Oh! May I?"  
  
At Sasuke's silent nod, Sakura looked at the first scroll, then blinked. "Sasuke! These are self-sorting high-capacity scrolls! Where did you get this many?" Both Sakura and Tanya had been lusting after scrolls like these once they started exploring the possibility of storage seals, but the shops charged a small fortune for each one.  
  
"Huh? Are they that good? What do they do?" asked Naruto, peering over her shoulder.  
  
"They hold way more stuff than regular scrolls, and if you know how, you can reach in and take only the things you want instead of having to empty the whole thing every time," explained Sakura absently. "Sasuke, you'd better open these. I've never used one, I'll end up dumping everything out of them."  
  
Sasuke scowled at the ground. "I've never used them before either," he muttered. "Never needed to."  
  
"Oh, I see. Well, here goes..."  
  
As she started opening the scrolls, Sakura got the feeling Sasuke had literally grabbed anything remotely useful he could find and shoved them into the scrolls. A whole variety of weapons that she was pretty sure none of them knew how to use (but at least there were plenty of kunai and shuriken), enough ration bars to feed a small army, a store's worth of camping gear, lots of ninja wire and trapmaking kits... Sakura froze as she opened the last scroll.  
  
One of the features of these high-quality scrolls was that they could contain other seals without destabilizing... within limits. Sasuke had definitely pushed those limits. Sakura held up the stack of inked paper the size of a very thick book and asked faintly, "Sasuke, did you really have this many high-power explosive tags _lying about your home_?!"  
  
"No." the boy replied, looking away and scowling even more fiercely. After a moment, Sakura heard him say quietly, "These were in storage. From before."  
  
"Oh." Fighting to keep the sympathy off her face (Sasuke hate pity. Sakura had figured that out a long time ago.), she studied the tags. "If they've been stored that long... yes, they're pretty much out of chakra. We'll need to recharge them. And I don't know about you, but I can only charge up a few of these without tiring myself out..." Sakura blinked and looked at Naruto, who'd been poking through the pile of goods. "Naruto, come over here and charge one of these, would you?"  
  
"Sure thing, Sakura!"  
  
"Right, put your chakra here... Not there! That's the arming trigger! Yes, here, that's the charging area... All right, you can stop now. How do you feel, Naruto?"  
  
"Eh? I feel fine!"  
  
"Not the least bit tired?"  
  
"Nope! Why?"  
  
Sakura sighed. "Good news, Sasuke. We can charge all of these back up. Oh, but how many of these tags do you want to use? They're pretty expensive too..."  
  
Sasuke looked at her with determination burning in his eyes. "I don't care. _I will not fail this test._ "  
  
"If you're sure... Naruto, start charging these all up. Carefully! Although what we'll do with this many explosives..."  
  
 _"With all the extra shuriken he brought, you could build quite a few AP mines,"_ observed Tanya.  
  
 _"What're those?"_  
  
Tanya explained the simple utility of a lot of pointy metal wrapped around high explosive. Sakura started to sweat. _"Let's save that for emergencies. I'm pretty sure we're not actually supposed to kill anyone in this test..."_  
  
It only took Naruto a few minutes to charge up the stack of explosive tags, much to Sakura's envy. He didn't even look winded! By that time she'd pulled out her map, and they began to plan.  
  
Since it was already very late, Kakashi was most likely due any minute. They all decided to only trap the most obvious approaches, and build a few different non-lethal bombs for personal use. The traps were mostly on manual triggers - only Naruto thought he could build a trap capable of tripping a jounin. Sakura didn't believe him, but for the sake of avoiding argument told him he could place a few on his own after they'd finished.  
  
Two and a half hours after the test was due to start, and they were done. Well, not quite _done_. It would have taken them several more hours to saturate even this modest training ground. But at least they had a few traps spread out in the most likely places.  
  
Satisfied that their sensei at least couldn't accuse them of slacking off completely, Sakura accepted Naruto's offer of a chicken ramen. She was also pleased to see him offer Sasuke a cup without prompting, and that Sasuke accepted it without sneering.  
  
Filled with warm food and chatting about plans for more elaborate traps (or pranks, as Naruto insisted on calling them), it was almost a disappointment when their sensei finally showed. Just a little over three hours late.  
  
"Oh, there you are," grumbled Naruto.  
  
"Well you see, I got lost on the road of life."  
  
"LIAR!"  
  
Sakura glanced at Kakashi Hatake, and saw only amusement on his face. _Well, at least he's laid back enough to joke with his subordinates._  
  
The man glanced at the empty ramen cups stacked to one side, and said, "Well, I see you've eaten. Here's hoping you don't throw up." Then he pulled out an alarm clock, and set it down on a stump. "This alarm clock is set to go off at noon. You have until that time to get one of these bells." He held up a pair of tinkling silver bells. "Anyone without a bell at noon will be failed and sent back to the academy."  
  
There was a moment of silence. Sakura immediately worked through the implications, and felt the bottom fall out of her stomach.  
  
Naruto stated the obvious. "But there's only two bells!"  
  
"Congratulations, you can count! And by the way..." The man's lackadaisical tone suddenly turned hard, and for the first time Sakura realized she was standing in front of _the_ Kakashi Hatake. "I suggest you come at me with intent to kill. It's the only chance you've got."


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A\N: This extra long-update courtesy the combined commissions of Hangwind and The Human.
> 
> A\N 2: I was reading the earliest Naruto chapters as research. Ah, those were the good old days. When Naruto understood tactics, Sasuke understood subtlety, and Sakura... alright, she was pretty damn useless.

**Chapter 7**

“Well, what are you waiting for? The exam has already begun.”

Kakashi’s words knocked Sakura out of her stupor. Without even thinking about it, she was leaping for the cover of the woodline. _When faced with a superior opponent, retreat to cover_. That was basic shinobi tactics, taught by the academy and emphasized by Tanya.

However, Sakura knew she couldn’t go too far into the forest. Kakashi was a superior shinobi, which likely meant he could conceal himself far better than her if he should choose to hide. Determined not to let their sensei break line of sight, Sakura peered back after ducking behind a tree. 

“I’M READY! LET’S FIGHT!!”

“Is he crazy?” _“Is he crazy?”_

At any other time, the sudden synchronicity with Tanya might have been amusing, but right now they were both wondering why on earth Naruto thought he could take on Kakashi all by himself. 

Without even thinking about it, Sakura started up the mental acceleration technique Tanya had taught her so as to give herself more time to confer with her spiritual advisor. 

_“While going all out right from the start has tactical merit given the superiority of our opponent, he has no chance on his own,”_ opined Tanya.

_“Exactly! Besides, why the hell did we go to the trouble of setting up all those traps if he’s just going to fight in the open?!”_ Sakura shouted into her mind. 

_“It doesn’t matter. The question is how are you going to take advantage of this?”_

_“Well, Naruto seems to be getting ready to fight hand to hand… but his taijutsu sucks!”_

_“True. Which probably means he’ll soon get frustrated and try something else. And his two best tricks would be the mass clone thing… and his Centrefold technique.”_

_“Stop calling it that, it’s just a naked transformation,”_ grumbled Sakura. _“And it’s not like he can use those to beat a jounin.”_

_“To beat him? No. To distract him, however…”_

Sakura caught on immediately. _“That could be our chance!”_

_“By ourselves?”_ asked Tanya.

_“No… but with Sasuke’s help we might be able to get the bells. Shit, we need to coordinate with him! Where is he?”_

Looking around frantically, Sakura eventually managed to spot Sasuke a short distance away, perched in a tree. Glancing back at the clearing, she saw Naruto frantically flailing away at Kakashi while the jounin taunted him by reading a book and dodging all his attacks at the same time.

Realizing it was only a matter of time before Naruto grew desperate enough to try some of his techniques, Sakura forwent stealth for speed, finding herself sharing Sasuke’s perch in a matter of seconds.

“What are you doing?” hissed Sasuke furiously.

“Telling you to get ready. Naruto’s going to make a big distraction soon, and when he does we’ll both attack.”

“What - how do you know?”

“I know, just trust me a little! I’m getting into position.” Sakura felt guilty about being so short with Sasuke, but there simply wasn’t time to explain. She needed to get to a different position so she and Sasuke could attack from different angles.

Another twenty seconds of tree-hopping, and she’d reached a position from which she and Sasuke could pincer Kakashi. And not a moment too soon. Naruto had just been hurled face down in a squealing heap after… _”Did sensei just kancho Naruto?!”_

_“So that idiotic game still exists… I guess Kakashi really is just playing around,”_ mused Tanya.

_“Look! Naruto’s going for a ninjutsu! This is it!”_

Sure enough, Naruto was back up and shouting at Kakashi. “You think that’s funny?! Well, take this! Clone technique!”

There was a veritable explosion of chakra smoke, and then the entire clearing was covered in a sea of orange. Large sections of the clone population were obviously deformed and dispersed instantly into puffs of smoke, adding to the haze, even as the healthy ones (still numbering in the dozens) all leaped at Kakashi at the same time.

Sakura joined the rush, a rapid transformation turning her into yet another Naruto clone, hoping to use the cover to launch her own assault. There was however one problem with this plan.

“EHH? Where’d he go?!” shouted Naruto. When the smoke from the first wave of clones dispersed, Kakashi was gone. There still were at least thirty Naruto clones of varying levels of quality scattered around the clearing. The real Naruto was obvious, since it was the only one talking and looking around. The others were all milling around silently as uncontrolled clones were wont to do.

_“He’s here somewhere! Hide!”_ came the urgent message from Tanya. 

Sakura immediately dropped into the lackadaisical attitude of a mindless clone, even as Naruto searched frantically for their sensei. 

_“We need to spot him before he spots us,”_ thought Sakura, rapidly glancing at the clones’ feet looking for telltale movements in the grass while also straining her still rudimentary chakra sense. As she looked around, a glint of metal caught her eye - a brace of shuriken, screaming in from the side.

Sakura’s heart rate spiked and almost leaped to the side, before realizing the shuriken were aimed at a spot just behind her. 

There was no conscious decision. As soon as her brain processed that last detail, her body was moving. Her leg swung around in a low roundhouse kick, every single gram of physical reinforcement hastening the strike.

_THUD!_

Through the haze from dispersing transformations, Sakura stood revealed with her leg stopped by Kakashi’s own. At the same time, the man’s left hand was in the air, the two thrown shuriken now spinning around his fingers.

For a moment, the tableau stood. Then things got very busy.

Sasuke charged in, kunai drawn, Naruto and his remaining clones screamed in, and Sakura focused on dodging the shuriken that Kakashi lazily flicked at her.

Within a matter of seconds, Sakura realized just how badly outclassed they were. Even Sasuke blowing out a fireball barely slowed the man down. Sakura herself tried her best, but even redirecting her momentum in midair using the bastardized flight technique only got her fingertips to one of the bells the first time. Subsequent attempts were immediately spotted and countered. As for Naruto, the hyperactive blonde made for a very loud distraction, but unfortunately that quality cut both ways.

As Sakura was forced to break off when Kakashi redirected Naruto into her path for the third time, their sensei spoke up in a conversational tone, “So, I take it the three of you have already decided which one of you gets sent back to the academy?”

“Duh! It’s obviously the bastard!” shouted Naruto.

Their offensive screeched to a halt as Sasuke turned towards the blonde. “If anyone’s going back it’s you, dead-last!”

“Yeah?! Who’s gonna make me, duck-butt?”

“You’re obviously the most useless one here! You almost got yourself killed jumping in front of my technique!”

“Oi, you’re the one trying to set fire to people! And Sakura’s the only one who’s even touched the bells! You’ve been just as useless as me, so there!”

As their impromptu alliance fell apart, Sakura caught the amused glint in the jounin’s eye. _“That jerk’s trying to pull us apart!”_ she mentally seethed.

_“Actually, I think he’s succeeding,”_ came the unwelcome observation. _“Better discipline your troops quickly, Sakura.”_

It should be said that even with all her Tanya-instilled self-confidence, Sakura didn’t really like putting herself forward. She wouldn’t let anyone push her around, but given a choice was perfectly happy to keep her head down. But the situation was dire, so girding herself, she stepped forward right in between the two boys. 

“This isn’t working. Fall back to the forest. Now!” she barked. 

Seeing incipient protests from both, she cut them off, “We couldn’t take him together. Think any of you can take him without my help? Fall back.”

Not waiting to hear their response, Sakura fled for the trees. For a long moment, she thought she’d made a mistake. Then came the sound of following footsteps and she breathed a sigh of relief.

She led them close to one of their booby-trapped zones, a trail that cut through the forested section. Soon the boys joined her in concealment under a shrub.

Naruto, naturally, was the first to give voice. “Why’d we leave?! We need to kick that guy’s butt!”

“Agreed, but why do it out there, when we took so much trouble setting up traps _in here_?” replied Sakura softly. Then she raised an eyebrow. “Did you forget?”

Judging by the sudden sheepishness on Naruto’s face, yes, he _had_ forgotten. Sasuke scoffed. “Why are we even bothering with the idiot? He’s just going to give us away, and there’s only two bells.”

Seeing a fight about to start, Sakura cut in, “Actually, there are no bells.”

“Huh?!” Sasuke was silent but his expression clearly echoed Naruto’s exclamation.

Sakura took a deep breath as she mentally rearranged some of the lessons Tanya gave her on what she called ‘logical fallacies’. Particularly the pitfalls of making false assumptions.

“Right now, both the bells are with Kakashi. The three of us have zero bells, so zero of us are passing.” Naruto’s face seemed to enter a permanent state of befuddlement, but Sasuke had a gleam of understanding in his eye. 

Sakura continued, “Until we get the bells away from him, there’s no point arguing about who’s getting what.”

Seeing the mulish looks on the boys’ faces, she pressed her case. “Think about it, which is easier, getting a bell away from each other, or from an elite jounin?”

“Each other,” muttered Sasuke.

“Exactly. So let’s promise to work together until we’ve got the bells. Afterwards… it’ll be between us.”

_“Well done, Sakura. With how much they hate each other, just drop a bell between them and they won’t even think about coming after yours,”_ gloated Tanya. Her voice turned sly, _“That can even work with just one bell. Let them fight it out and backstab the winner.”_

Sakura felt a little ashamed, but consoled herself that as long as they got both bells, she and Sasuke were guaranteed to pass. _Sorry, Naruto. But I don't see you beating Sasuke, and I'm not giving you mine._

The boys had been glaring at each other for some seconds. Finally, Sasuke grudgingly nodded. “Agreed. Just don’t get in my way, idiot.”

“Same to you, bastard.”

“Great, so we’re working together to get the bells? Alright, then the first thing, we need to lure sensei into our trap zones. And then...”

"Then, splat!" whispered Naruto enthusiastically.

"No," Sakura shook her head. "We've already seen how good sensei is. I really doubt he's going to be nice enough just to stand still and get hit."

"Use the traps as a distraction to get the bells?" muttered Sasuke.

"Call that Plan A," agreed Sakura. "But if that doesn't work, then we'll lure him into a trap he can't simply shrug off." Her voice grew serious. "We need to be _very_ careful though. A trap good enough to take down a jounin... might, no, it _will_ kill us if we get careless. As soon as the signal is given, anyone near him has to run away. At once!"

Naruto's eyes had gone round in his head. "Sakura... w-what trap would that be...?" he asked in an awed whisper.

"One involving shuriken, camouflage, and quite a few of those explosive notes."

Even as she spoke, Sakura was also reaching out to Tanya. _“Tanya...tell me more about these… claymores.”_

In the end, getting Kakashi to follow them into the woods proved surprisingly easy. So easy, Tanya was convinced the man was playing along. _“This is good news,”_ the spirit said. _“It means he’s giving us a chance to pass.”_

Sakura was struck by worry. “If he’s going easy… do you think we should…”

_“He did tell us to try to kill him. Besides, he’s wearing a flak jacket. He’ll be fine… well, he’ll live unless he gets really unlucky.”_

Even with Kakashi going easy on them, the fighting was far from easy. He kept throwing out taunts trying to disrupt their teamwork, he was using substitution to get out of the few traps they managed to get him in, and he seemed to take unholy glee in grabbing and throwing them into Naruto’s pranks. It took _forever_ to get glitter out of hair! That little incident alone went a long way in bolstering Sakura's desire to bring that smug jerk down a peg or ten. 

Much as Sakura had expected, none of the traps ever came close to inconveniencing the jounin. They might have if they had included explosive notes, but Sakura had ordered all the explosives removed from every trap except the big one. No need to tip Kakashi off beforehand that his students had access to gear a bit beyond recommended for fresh academy graduates. 

All this sound and fury had but one purpose… get Kakashi close to the east side of one particular tree. The tree's surface, from a height of one foot up to about five feet, was covered with Sasuke’s explosive notes, pinned in place by shuriken. As soon as one note was set off, the rest would go up in sympathetic detonation. The entire trap was concealed under one of Naruto’s camouflage cloaks. Not that Sakura was relying just on the cloak. She’d used one of the fruits of her many years under Tanya, the ability to cast optical illusions, to perfect the disguise. Since optical illusions were a real chakra construct, much like the transformation technique, it was to be hoped that Kakashi wouldn't notice until it was much too late. 

Keeping up the illusion had definitely reduced her combat ability, but hopefully Kakashi would just think she was getting tired. Finally, when she got knocked back one more time, she used the force to roll next to the tree. Kakashi was in place. Placing her hands on the tags, she focused her chakra sense on the seal’s inner workings. A moment of concentration, and the tags were on a three-second countdown. 

“NOW!” she screamed.

Two seconds. 

The boys broke off in desperate runs. Sakura threw herself flat and covered her ears.

One second. 

The tags let out a loud hiss. Kakashi’s eye went wide.

Detonation.

Explosive tags were, sadly, omnidirectional. Even though they had chosen the sturdiest tree they could to act as a backstop, most of the blast was still directed off to the sides, much to Sakura’s discomfort. Thankfully, internal chakra reinforcement meant ninja simply weren’t as badly affected as civilians by blunt force. This was also why explosive tags were mostly useless against them in open terrain. Piercing damage, on the other hand, usually worked quite well.

Fighting through the ringing in her ears, Sakura made a mental note to develop _directional_ explosive tags. As soon as she learned how to make regular ones. Because that was honestly kind of cool. Then she looked up, and the bottom fell out of her stomach. 

Her sensei was swaying, body and throat pierced by metal shrapnel. His flak jacket was shredded, clearly unable to handle the force behind the fragments. Before her horrified eyes, the man collapsed into a pool of blood. Naruto and Sasuke came in sight. Naruto was shouting something, Sasuke was pale and trembling. From Tanya came a whispered _“Shit”_.

Sakura was paralyzed. The world slowed. Slower and slower, as Sakura frantically tried to give herself time to think. And as the world slowed, her sensei’s body… _glitched_. 

Sakura’s breath stopped. She looked closer, the Type 95 vibrating as she pushed her mental enhancement to the limit. And as her senses sharpened to painful levels, the body started looking duller. Washed out. _Woody._

“GENJUTSU!” Sakura screamed. 

In her head, Tanya was talking fast. _“Sakura, your magic sense!”_

The ability to sense chakra (or magic as Tanya still called it) was one of the first things Tanya had tried to teach her, but also one of the hardest. She could sense it fine, but understanding what she sensed, separating the signals...that was a work in progress. Out here, though, there were just the four of them.

Sasuke’s small steady flame. Naruto’s blinding sun-like prominence. And finally, the steady, controlled, surprisingly _small_ feel that she didn’t recognize…

“Underground!” 

Sakura leaped into the air, but Kakashi's leap out of the ground much faster. A hand closed around her ankle, and then she was flying to slam into Sasuke, both of them going down in a tangle of limbs. 

Then they were slammed again, this time by Naruto’s body. 

Before any of them could get their bearings, loops of shinobi wire had wrapped tight, trapping all three of the genin against each other. _"So..so fast,"_ Sakura could only think in wonder. It was a testament to just how much Kakashi Hatake had been holding back.

“I’m glad to see you all had the right attitude,” came their sensei’s cheerful voice. “But you took way too long. If you listen carefully…” From far away came the faint sound of an alarm clock. Sakura felt like crying. _After all that…_ She could feel the rage emanating from Sasuke, and poor Naruto curling up in a ball of failure.

Their sensei was still talking. “It’s probably for the best. You lot were getting pretty dangerous back there. And none of you got the bells. So under the circumstances, I have no choice but to let you all… Pass!”

….”WHAT?!”


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Short commission courtesy The Human.

**Chapter 8 - Interlude: Kakashi Hatake**  
  
Kakashi knew he was a failure of a human being. It was why he had always felt a little burst of relief every time the genin team assigned to him failed to see through the bell test. He could then reject them with a clear conscience. It was a better fate than being subject to the dubious protection of a man who had failed every single person he had ever cared for.  
  
It was also why he had been so extremely conflicted when his sensei's son and his teammate Obito's last surviving kin were assigned to him.  
  
Part of him wanted absolutely nothing to do with them. Let them go to some other sensei. Then he wouldn't have to look at the living remnants of his own failures on a daily basis. And if the worst should happen and they should die, at least it wouldn't be his fault. Whoever said that it's better to try and fail than never try at all had no clue what he was talking about.  
  
Another part though, that hard core of stubborn optimism (that Obito and Minato and Rin had managed to implant in him without his noticing), the same optimism that let him get out of bed in the morning, the optimism that maybe, if he kept living long enough, things just might get better - that same optimism made him wish to take the challenge. Made him want to prove - to himself, to his dearly departed, to fate itself - that he wasn't a failure. That he could live up to the ideals that his teachers and teammates had lived and died by.  
  
He'd done his homework. He'd read their records, and looked in on the two of them in the days leading in to team assignments. The cold and talented Sasuke and the optimistic goofball Naruto, it was like looking at a mirrored image of him and Obito. Oh, he was intellectually aware that there were plenty of differences as well, but there was no denying the strange twisting knot in his chest as he watched them go about their day. All they needed was a responsible kunoichi like Rin to keep the peace between them, and it would be his Team 7 all over again.  
  
It was that last bit that had left him feeling unsettled.  
  
It was perhaps embarrassing to admit, but he'd been so focused on Sasuke and Naruto that he hadn't actually paid any attention to the third member at all. Oh, he'd skimmed Sakura Haruno's academy record, but while her scores had been as high as you'd expect from the top kunoichi of the year, nothing had jumped out at him. So walking into the room and finding her engaged in a push-up contest with the boys had thrown him off his stride. That hadn't been Rin-like at all.  
  
Watching her interactions as he pretended to leave them waiting on the morning of the test had further increased that feeling of dissonance. Much like Rin, she'd played the peace-maker between the conflicting personalities of her teammates. But unlike Rin, she'd done it from the front, leading them rather than helping them. He'd pegged Sasuke as the leader, much like he himself had been. Yet when push came to shove Sakura had quickly commandeered the boys through sheer force of personality.  
  
Kakashi had thought her little power play would fall apart once he laid out the conditions of the test. But even then, she'd managed to browbeat Sasuke into joining her in helping Naruto, and then forced both boys into retreating when it was clear their first assault had failed.  
  
As he'd stood there in the field giving his students time to set up their little traps, he'd been doing nothing but mulling over the enigmatic Sakura Haruno. It hadn't escaped his notice that she possessed some bastardized form of the Body Flicker. And while the rest of her repertoire seemed strictly academy level, there was a smoothness to her movements that reminded him of... well, himself. Few were the fresh genin, even from clans, that would take the trouble to polish their basics to such a high level.  
  
What had stood out even more than her physical abilities though, was the way she'd led the boys around by the nose. Charismatic children were hardly uncommon. But there was something almost _learned_ about the way Sakura had manipulated her teammates. It honestly put Kakashi in mind of children trained by the Yamanaka, the Kotori, and other clans who went in for the more social side of shinobi work.  
  
And then there had been the final trap she'd sprung on him. Over the years, a few of the genin Kakashi had tested had taken him up on the offer to try and kill him. But all those efforts had been products of frustration and anger. This was the first time a genin had set out to murder him with malice aforethought.  
  
Kakashi hated to admit it, but he had gotten curious. Curiosity was his one personality trait that had remained unchanged over the years. In his youth it had applied to ninjutsu, now it applied to people. Even as he stood in the Hokage's office waiting to be called upon, he continued to turn over in his mind how an earth a non-clan genin could exhibit so many traits usually reserved for children from the more extreme clans.  
  
In fact, so engrossed was he in his thoughts, that he had delayed his reply to the Hokage's question. Rather than reveal his own preoccupation, he gave out a bored, "Hmm? You said something?"  
  
The Hokage gave a long-suffering sigh. "I said, the results for Team 7?"  
  
"Oh. They pass."  
  
Kakashi ignored the exclamations of surprise and curiosity. Unfortunately, he couldn't ignore the Hokage as the old man said, "Oh? How surprising. And what did you think of your new students."  
  
"Sasuke's a talented loner, Naruto's tough but undisciplined. They both have potential." As he'd expected, those were the two the Hokage wanted to know about. The old man seemed satisfied.  
  
Unfortunately, Yuhi Kurenai had a chip on her shoulder about kunoichi not being taken seriously, and wasn't about to let him get away with glossing over his third member. "And the kunoichi?"  
  
Seeing no way to refuse answering without looking suspicious, he said, "Sakura Haruno. She..."  
  
 _...is a trained manipulator, an innovative technique user, and possibly a natural born killer...  
  
...has gotten me curious...  
  
...is the real reason I passed this team, and not the two boys I'm supposed to care about..._  
  
"...has good basics and seems to get along with the boys. She'll do."


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was supposed to be two updates, but then I couldn't find a decent place to stop, so here we are. This big chapter brought to you by Hangwind, SilverShadow, Joel Williams, and Shawn Whyte.

**Chapter 9**  
  
_“Those who break the rules are trash. But those who abandon their friends are lower than trash.”_  
  
Those were the words Kakashi had left them with after their genin test. Sakura couldn’t help but keep coming back to chew on those words. And she knew Tanya was doing the same.  
  
As Tanya pointed out, those words both did and didn’t make sense.  
  
Cherishing your teammates was an obviously positive attitude to foster in one’s genin. Tanya had gone on at length about something called ‘esprit de corps’, but what it boiled down to was that soldiers fought hardest when they had people nearby that they had a positive emotional connection to. If you like your teammates, you’ll fight that much harder to look out for them. So far, so good.  
  
Both Tanya and Sakura, though, felt that Kakashi’s wording was a bit problematic. First of all, he hadn’t said teammates, but ‘friends’. And yes, in an ideal world, you want your teammates to be your friends, particularly in Konoha where genin teams stayed together until one of them got promoted. But Tanya was adamant that it was perfectly possible to build a solid relationship with your fellow soldiers without actually being friends -- and once you started getting put into leadership positions, being friends with your subordinates might actually be detrimental to military discipline.  
  
But that was a minor problem, and could be explained by Kakashi simply talking about their time as genin, which would likely last for at least a year. The _bigger_ issue was the tacit permission given by Kakashi to _break the rules._  
  
Over years of war, Tanya had learned that sometimes, rules had to be broken. Particularly when survival was on the line. And sometimes, the rules were flat-out stupid to begin with. The Empire had been better than most in that aspect, but even they had their share of idiocies. Such as actually trying to implement battle strategies dictated by the Kaiser, a man who’d never led troops in his life. And that’s not even getting into the mess that was the second great war.  
  
But - and this was the important point - knowing when and how to bend or break the rules was a function of experience, and an action to be undertaken only with great caution or under great necessity. Giving prepubescent _children_ carte blanche to break the rules for the sake of something as vague as camaraderie seemed to be the very opposite of conducive to good discipline.  
  
And yet, Kakashi Hatake was arguably one of the most recognized names in the Konoha shinobi corps. His service record might be classified, but it was open knowledge that he’d been in front-line duty of some kind or another since the age of five. Leaving aside Tanya’s lingering suspicion that his ‘genius’ might be the same kind as hers (a suspicion that Sakura knew nothing of), he was without doubt a vastly experienced operative. A man like that wouldn’t make such unorthodox statements without reason.  
  
Tanya and Sakura had argued on and off about the meaning behind his words. It was Sakura who remembered something else that Kakashi had mentioned during the test. It had been said seemingly in passing, the kind of trite saying older people trot out to annoy youngsters, but the words seemed extremely suspicious when paired with his other statement - ‘always look underneath the underneath’.  
  
Once that little datapoint was added to the discussion, both Tanya and Sakura immediately felt they were on the trail of the lesson their teacher had been trying to convey.  
  
If his statement about rules and friends was to be treated as having three layers… then him telling the genin it was all right to disobey orders for the sake of defending those close to you was clearly the first layer and was to be discarded immediately. The second layer, then, was that it was an exaggerated statement designed to drum in the importance of teamwork, but not to be taken literally. _But what lay beneath that?  
  
“Context, Sakura. When did he tell us this? Shortly after he got done showing us that monument to the heroic dead, and telling us that his best friends were on the monument. And right before that he gave us a test that was seemingly guaranteed to eliminate one of us, yet required all of us to work together to pass.”_  
  
Tanya and Sakura let their mental connection lapse as they both mulled over it. Sakura was quiet as she worked through it. Tanya was quiet because she was having a suspicion as to what Kakashi meant, and she wasn’t liking it.  
  
“He told us all his friends were dead. But then he implied it was all right to break the rules to protect your friends,” mused the pink-haired genin aloud. “But if it really was all right to disobey orders to protect your friends, why were his friends dead?”  
  
_“Isn’t that the million-ryo question?”_  
  
“You don’t think…!” Sakura cut off her vocal surprise and dropped into mental conversation, _“You don’t think they were killed because they broke the rules, do you?”  
  
“It couldn’t have been a formal execution,”_ mused Tanya. _“Then they would have been branded traitors, not placed on a memorial. But… Kakashi only spoke about not abandoning your friends. Nothing about saving yourself.”  
  
“So… what he was saying… underneath the underneath… that teamwork is vital, but breaking the rules will end up with you dead?”  
  
“The way he spoke about being worse than trash,” _said Tanya seriously. _“I got the feeling he was talking about himself. Meaning he stuck to the rules, but his friends broke them to protect someone, presumably him. With the final result - he’s alive and mourning, but they’re dead.”_  
  
Tanya didn’t like it. She didn’t like it at all. Because when she had first founded the 203rd Imperial Mage Battalion a lifetime ago, she’d been a stickler for the rules, and she’d looked upon her fellow mages as meatshields between her and an untimely death. But as time had passed, she’d taken greater and greater risks to protect those who served under her. She tried to tell herself she was merely husbanding her resources, but with the clarity of hindsight, she’d gotten attached. Attached to the point where, ultimately, she had switched position from being Kakashi to being his friend.  
  
Thankfully, she didn’t have time to lament the idiocy of her past self. Sakura needed careful guidance, lest she end up making the same stupid mistake and getting herself killed before she could find some way to get Tanya a new body. _“Sakura,”_ she spoke sternly. _“You are not permitted to get yourself killed in some idiotic heroic sacrifice.”  
  
“So you want me to be worse than trash?”_ came the snarky response.  
  
_“But you’ll be alive. I need you to stay alive at least until you can get me a new body. Then you can break as many rules as you like.”  
  
“Is that the only reason you care about me?”_ replied Sakura, nettled.  
  
_“No. You’re also smart, disciplined, and talented. I think you can rise high in this society, and you dying a premature death will be a true waste,”_ answered Tanya in her blandest mental tone. _“But I am a rational person, so I naturally will look to my own needs first.”_  
  
Sakura huffed and went back to the original topic. _“So, what Kakashi was really saying is that following the rules will keep us alive, and breaking them is likely to get us killed - especially if we break them to protect others instead of looking after ourselves.”  
  
“Probably”,_ agreed Tanya. _“Given his talent, Kakashi would most likely have been in the thick of any fighting. If his friends had stuck to the rules and seen to their own parts of the mission, Kakashi would most likely have died in their place. Instead the opposite is true… and who knows what happened to the mission.”  
  
“So… what do we do?”  
  
“Didn’t I just tell you not to make any stupid sacrifices?”  
  
“Even if it gets Naruto or Sasuke killed?”  
  
“Well, that depends. Do you feel like you will never ever get over it if either of them die?”  
  
“Of course! I love Sasuke!”_  
  
Tanya made an exasperated sound. _“And does he love you back? Would he make the same sacrifice for you? Or Naruto?”_  
  
Sakura wanted to say yes, that Sasuke would undoubtedly save her… but she knew that was just a childish fantasy. The conversation descended into a sullen silence.  
  
_“Sakura, teamwork is certainly important. Kakashi has a point, only the lowest of the low ignore a teammate in danger. But breaking protocol is a fast way to get killed in a combat situation. That’s what he is really trying to warn us about. No matter how attached we get to our teammates, only the most experienced can get away with breaking the rules. You’re just not at that level yet. Maybe, in time, but not yet.”_  
  
“Well then, I guess I have to get strong enough that I can get away with breaking the rules,” muttered Sakura out loud.  
  
_“Not just you. A chain is only as strong as its weakest link. I wouldn’t have lasted as long as I did if I hadn’t had some truly talented battle maniacs watching my back.”_  
  
Sakura nodded with determination. “I guess we all have to get strong enough, and until then, I’ll make sure to follow the rules.”  
  
The warm glow of satisfaction from having understood their sensei’s cryptic instructions lasted all of ten minutes. Then a thought occurred to Sakura. _“Tanya… I was thinking… what are the chances either Sasuke or Naruto will be able to read this deeply into Kakashi’s words?”  
  
“Sasuke might have a tiny chance. Naruto? None whatsoever,”_ was the smug response.  
  
_“Right. That’s what I thought. So… here’s the thing… wouldn’t Kakashi know that? In fact, would I be able to look this deeply if you weren’t with me?”  
  
“I guess… what’s your point?”  
  
“My point is, Kakashi knows at least Naruto won’t be able to see past even the first layer of his words, let alone the second. If it wasn’t for you, none of us could. Most genin would just take his words at face value.”_  
  
There was a moment of silence from the voice in her head, then a quiet, _“Dammit, you’re right. But that makes no sense. If he expects us to take his words literally, then it means he just told us it was acceptable to disobey orders if we felt it would endanger our team. No military can possibly function like that! There has to be something else behind it!”_  
  
Sakura rubbed her head as Tanya’s voice devolved into furious muttering. They’d only known their sensei for less than 48 hours, and already the man was giving them a headache. Was this what it would be like training under a genius?  
  


* * *

It was four weeks after the bell test, and Sakura was lying on the grass of their regular training ground, her chakra coils aching from stress. Body Flicker training was _hard_.  
  
Sakura had been struggling on her own to create a chakra adaptation of Tanya’s flight spell, but after being stuck for a while on barely-controlled mono-directional thrust, she’d approached Kakashi for help.  
  
He seemed to think she was trying to independently develop the Body Flicker. Sakura had heard of the Body Flicker from her father, but the man had never learned it since it was considered a chunin level skill. Since Kakashi actually seemed willing to give her tips on the technique, she’d decided not to correct his misapprehension.  
  
Sakura did, however, take note that jounin had enormous leeway to break lesser rules like teaching restrictions without sanction, if they felt it justified. Which made sense, after all, jounin are not just the strongest, but the most trusted shinobi in Konoha. The only people with higher security clearance were ANBU, the Hokage’s private army of assassins - and there were persistent rumors that Kakashi had been one of them. Rank had its privileges, and in a heavily militarized society like Konoha that only held even more true.  
  
Body Flicker, it turned out, was simply the ultimate form of the Substitution technique. Instead of linking your chakra to a nearby solid object and switching places with it, you link your chakra to a spot on any surface nearby and pull yourself over to it. And while it might look like teleportation to the civilian eye, Kakashi warned her that, just like the Substitution, she was still crossing the intervening space. Just very very fast, while (as Tanya put it) giving a middle finger to inertia and conservation of momentum.  
  
Figuring out just how fast a Body Flicker or Substitution actually moved a human body was going on Sakura’s future experiment list. Kakashi had actually looked a bit embarrassed when he admitted he didn’t know. Apparently, scientific analysis of chakra got a bad reputation in Konoha after the horrific experiments of the missing-nin Orochimaru.  
  
_“Orochimaru sounds like an unholy cross between Schugel and Mengele,”_ muttered Tanya, and refused to elaborate on what she meant.  
  
Useful as the Body Flicker was, though, there were no shortcuts to learning it. It turned out Sakura had been on the right track when she’d been training herself to reduce the number of handsigns for the Substitution technique. The final goal was to reduce the number of signs to one, and reduce the size of the target to nothing.  
  
When Sakura had admitted she’d not been using any signs at all when flinging herself around, Kakashi had simply eye-smiled and told her that a sign-less Flicker was considered an elite jounin-level skill, and she should learn to walk before she ran.  
  
Of course, learning the Body Flicker didn’t mean Sakura had given up on learning how to fly. If the Tsuchikage could do it, then she was going to figure it out too! But Body Flicker was a skill she had a teacher for, and a bird in hand was better than a theoretical bird sometime in the far future.  
  
But even with Kakashi’s tips, the Body Flicker was the most chakra-intensive technique she knew. Transformation and Optical Illusions might cost more energy in the long run, but with Body Flicker she had to release a significant amount of chakra in one instantaneous burst. Thus the ache of stressed coils rendering her immobile.  
  
As the worst of the pain receded, she groaned and sat up. Looking over to the little creek that ran past the training ground, she smiled as she watched Naruto fall into the water for the millionth time. She might be having trouble with the Body Flicker, but at least Kakashi had declared her control good enough to start learning it. The boys were still stuck on water-walking.  
  
The idea of exercises designed to improve both chakra control and capacity, while at the same time giving them more tactical options, had Tanya frothing at the mouth. Tanya had been shrieking in Sakura’s head about why they weren’t taught tree and water walking in the academy if they were so useful, instead of the comparatively pathetic leaf-sticking exercise.  
  
When Sakura put that question to Kakashi, the man had said that many civilian students didn’t have the capacity for sustained tree-walking until puberty, so the exercise was removed from the academy curriculum. Sakura didn’t buy it. Even if most civilian-born couldn’t do them, the clan children and the more talented civilian-born should have managed tree-walking at least. Maybe as an extra-credit assignment.  
  
Perhaps Tanya had made her cynical, but Sakura was privately convinced this was one more way clan children were allowed to one-up those from without. After all, they had a clan full of people to teach them these exercises whenever they were ready, letting them get a head start on… well, almost everything related to ninjutsu.  
  
The sight of Sasuke’s control slipping and sending him into the water alongside Naruto was enough to bring Sakura out of her wool-gathering. Glancing at the sun, she decided Kakashi would be along in a few minutes, so there was no point doing any more training at the moment.  
  
She walked over to the shore where Sasuke was pulling himself out of the water. Naruto, that unending font of energy, had already jumped back out. Sakura gave him forty seconds before he got dunked again. A full minute if he was lucky.  
  
Kicking off her sandals, Sakura walked out onto the water while barely breaking her stride.  
  
“Hey Sakur-woah!” Naruto tried to wave at her and nearly went under again.  
  
“Concentrate, Naruto.” Sakura smiled as she felt the cool water below her toes. Strictly speaking she should be doing this exercise with her sandals on, but the feel of water through a layer of chakra was just too pleasant to pass up, and she’d already figured out water-walking anyway.  
  
No, she was here for a different reason. Yanking her long pink hair free from its tight bun, she let it flow down to mid-back. And then she went into her stretches.  
  
These were Yamanaka-approved meditative exercises designed to limber up both body and mind. She’d learned them from Ino, and while Sakura wasn’t sure what wrapping yourself into a cinnamon roll had to do with meditation, they were certainly very useful for relaxing after a heavy workout, and great for flexibility. That was her story and she was sticking to it.  
  
_“When I mentioned the contortions of exotic dancers from my time, that was a joke, not a suggestion,”_ grumbled Tanya.  
  
_“First, I have all my clothes on,”_ sniffed Sakura as she leaned backwards and grabbed her own ankles. _“Second, you’re just annoyed because Sasuke actually stops to look.”  
  
“I think he’s questioning your sanity, not his hormones. But hey, judging by his face, Naruto at least appreciates the show,” _Tanya replied, voice dripping with sarcasm.  
  
_“Collateral damage,”_ Sakura thought cheekily. They’d had a variation of this argument ever since Sakura had started doing her stretching routine in front of the boys.  
  
The first time, she’d done it in reaction to a slight pain in her back, momentarily forgetting the boys were there. When she realized she was doing Ino’s stretching routine in public, she’d been thoroughly embarrassed. But then all embarrassment had been trumped by an amazing fact - Sasuke had stopped his own exercises to pay attention to her.  
  
And yes, it might be because he found the exercises strange and not because he found her attractive. It didn’t matter. For once, Sasuke was paying attention to her, and not in a negative way or because he had to. Subsequent days had shown this wasn’t a fluke. Even if it was just for a minute, Sasuke would pause his training to study hers. Alas, both boys had turned her down when she offered to teach them. That would have been a great way to get close to him.  
  
Finishing her stretches, Sakura stood, flicking her head to send water scattering from her hair. That move was pure Ino. Sakura wasn’t sure where her best friend had learned all these ‘techniques to attract boys’, but Sakura was going to use all of them she could as long as there was even a chance Sasuke was paying attention.  
  
Sakura wouldn’t check to see Sasuke’s reaction, of course. Ino, over numerous sleepovers and gossip sessions, had repeatedly emphasized the importance of not looking too eager, even though she rarely took her own advice. Instead Sakura nonchalantly wrung out and wrapped up her hair in its usual tight bun before walking off the water just as casually as she’d entered.  
  
Putting on her sandals, she ambled over to the little red bridge that was Team 7’s meeting point. They were supposed to meet each day at seven-thirty. The faint sound of a clock tower’s bells told her it had just gone eleven, so Kakashi should be along any minute.  
  
It had taken Sakura a couple of days to figure out why Kakashi would tell them to show up so much earlier, but using those early hours for training really was obvious. She had even come to appreciate Kakashi’s choice in missions. Sure, the D-ranks Kakashi picked for them were usually mind-numbingly tedious. But they also required little strenuous effort on their part, meaning their team could train hard all morning, relax while doing their chores, then be ready to go for Kakashi’s afternoon team training and sparring sessions.  
  
Admittedly, her philosophical attitude to the annoyance of D-ranks had been a result of the lessons Tanya had drummed into her head.  
  
_“Shinobi work on a commission system. They have to work if they want to eat. But while the village is at peace, there’s only so many important missions to go around,”_ Tanya had pointed out. _“Besides, be glad for the boredom. Cherish it. Ask yourself this - would you rather be running messages for a grocery store where the biggest danger is the traffic? Or would you prefer running messages between front lines, with enemy shinobi waiting to murder you at the first opportunity?”_  
  
When put that way, suddenly Sakura found she had no problem with running D-ranks. The pay wasn’t much, but it would’ve been enough to survive on even if she’d been living on her own. And it meant plenty of time for her and her team to train and grow stronger.  
  
Sakura had done her best to pass this wisdom along to the boys, but it had proved a hard sell. Naruto was utterly convinced of his own immortality, and Sasuke seemed to have a need to challenge himself. Thankfully, Kakashi seemed perfectly happy to ignore their grumbling. It only confirmed both her and Tanya’s good opinion of him.  
  
Still, she was a bit nervous today, because she had to ask Kakashi a question that might just reduce her status in his eyes. Tanya was against anything that might hurt Sakura’s career, but Sakura was undaunted. This question was too important to leave hanging.  
  
When Kakashi showed up a few minutes later and ordered the team to fall in and head to the Hokage’s tower to pick up the day’s mission, Sakura stepped forward and raised her hand. “Um, Kakashi sensei?”  
  
“Yes, Sakura?”  
  
“I have a question. It’s about what you said that first day - ‘those who break the rules are trash, but those who abandon their friends are worse than trash’.”  
  
Kakashi’s eye grew serious. “So I did. What was the question?”  
  
“Well, when you say ‘rules’, exactly which rules are you talking about? It can’t be the Second Hokage’s rules for shinobi conduct…?”  
  
“And why not?”  
  
“Well, those rules… aren’t really rules are they? At least not all of them. Sure, some of them, like obeying your commanding officer, are also present in Konoha military law. But there’s no law I’ve heard of that penalizes a shinobi who cries on a mission…” Sakura trailed off.  
  
Kakashi eye-smiled at her. “You’re quite correct. Most of the Second’s rules for shinobi are more guidelines on recommended conduct rather than actual enforceable laws. However, those guidelines are taught for a reason. Many shinobi, particularly veterans, treat those rules as an ideal to strive for. Was that your question?”  
  
“Ah, no. What I meant was… what rules _can_ we break to save a friend on a mission? I mean, are we actually expected to disobey one of your orders if it means putting a teammate in danger?”  
  
Kakashi grew somber. “Sakura, your first thought should always be of your teammates. Always.”  
  
_“What?!”_ came Tanya’s exclamation. Sakura could feel Tanya’s shock multiplying her own.  
  
When she’d asked the question, Sakura had expected Kakashi to reassure her that _of course_ they’re not meant to disobey direct orders. No military could possibly function if soldiers valued the lives of their comrades over their superior’s instructions. She brought her stunned mind back into gear as she realized Kakashi was still talking.  
  
“That being said, please understand that I too am your teammate,” continued the jounin. “And you are mine. And I will not allow one of my team members to die. So you don’t need to worry about orders from me. I will personally ensure you all make it back. You have my word.”  
  
Sakura could feel the gravitas etched into each and every word. This was so unlike the jounin’s usual lackadaisical attitude that she was briefly rendered speechless. Judging by how stiff the boys had gotten, they too felt the weight of Kakashi’s promise. Swallowing to clear her throat, Sakura gave a bow of respect to one’s superior. “Thank you for your words, Kakashi sensei.”  
  
Kakashi gave a sunny eye-smile, the serious atmosphere dissipating like morning mist. “Think nothing of it, Sakura. And I’m glad you’re thinking about these things. It’s always good to ask questions, or you’ll never learn otherwise.”  
  
The jounin turned around to lead them to the Hokage tower. As Sakura studied his back and mulled over what he said, she felt a sense of satisfaction radiating from Tanya. _“Well, that explains it,”_ came the voice of the spirit.  
  
_“That explains what?”  
  
“I was wondering how on earth Kakashi could possibly maintain discipline while encouraging us to prioritize lives over orders. The answer is trust. By emphasizing the bond between teammates, and then making himself one of the team instead of our superior, he’s relying on us absolutely trusting that his orders will keep us safe. Underneath the underneath, indeed. Instead of relying on his rank and fear of punishment, he’s relying entirely on mutual trust to keep us obedient. Tricky, but far more effective than the harshest discipline if he can pull it off.”_  
  
Sakura almost tripped. _“So, you’re saying he’s basically manipulating us?”  
  
“Of course,”_ Tanya replied casually. _“All leadership is an exercise in manipulation. Every leader, to be effective, must either use the threat of punishment, or convince his followers that their goals align with his own. Kakashi’s approach is rather unusual, but I’d say it worked, don’t you?”  
  
“But… he really seemed sincere!”  
  
“Of course he was sincere. That’s what makes it effective. I have no doubt he will do his utmost to protect the three of you. But make no mistake, Sakura. Kakashi is a jounin and possibly an ANBU. You don’t get to be either without repeatedly proving your loyalty to Konoha. He will protect you three… right up until your lives are balanced against the needs of the village.”  
  
“Oh… well, that’s good.”  
  
“What? What’s good about it?”  
  
“It means, he’ll only risk our lives when it's vital to Konoha. That’s good, isn’t it?”  
  
“Yes, normally that’s a good thing. The problem is, Konoha isn’t a normal military, it is a mercenary organization. All the shinobi it sends out on missions - they’re not for defending the lives of its citizens. Its shinobi are a source of income, a profit center. So the question becomes - what does Kakashi consider important? Just how big a paycheck will be worth the life of a genin?”_  
  
Sakura felt her spine freeze. So disturbed was she that she barely managed to pay attention as Kakashi outlined their day’s mission (walking the Inuzuka dogs). Finally she spoke. _“I don’t believe it. I don’t think he’d let us die over something like money.”  
  
“The manipulation is already working,” _came Tanya’s amused response. _“You’ve only known him for a month, and he’s carefully avoided revealing any personal information in that time, and yet you’re ready to defend him.”  
  
“It’s not that. Does he really strike you as the kind of guy who cares about money?” _Sakura snapped back.  
  
_“Personally, no. But that’s the thing about money. Even if Kakashi is immune to its lure, money, in enough quantity, becomes a strategic asset.”  
  
“What does that mean?”  
  
“It means Kakashi himself might not care about ten million ryo. But the village Kakashi serves would care very much about ten billion ryo.”_  
  
Sakura wanted to argue, but found she couldn’t. Would the life of any single shinobi be worth ten billion ryo?  
  
The Academy went on and on about the Will of Fire and how all of Konoha was a single family united by the love of each other. How no price was too great to pay to protect your family. Tanya had scoffed at what she called blatant propaganda, and combined with her father’s own observations on shinobi life, Sakura couldn’t bring herself to disagree with Tanya’s position. Konoha was a business, and shinobi were its assets. Sometimes, assets had to be traded away.  
  
The warm feelings of hope and trust in her sensei congealed to a cloying mass of worry. Tanya must have sensed her distress, because the spirit’s next words were more conciliatory. _“Don’t worry too much about it Sakura. This is the truth of any military organization. The leaders have goals they must pursue, and those goals are to be bought with the lives of their soldiers. Didn’t we both agree, if you’re going to become a shinobi, you’ll do it with both eyes wide open?”_  
  
Sakura sighed. _“You’re right. I already knew all this, didn’t I? How did you put it? Konoha peddles violence for cash. It’s just for a second there… I’d hoped…”_  
  
Tanya’s voice was grave. _“And that’s why hope is dangerous. Never let hope substitute for reality, Sakura. The politicians in my life did that, and the result was two wars more devastating than anything the Elemental nations can imagine.”  
  
“Right, right. But then… how much can we trust Kakashi?” _puzzled Sakura.  
  
_“Quite a bit, at least for the near future. One good thing about being genin, none of our missions are likely to involve sums large enough to matter to someone like Kakashi. In fact, I’d say you don’t really need to worry until you become chunin. And by that time you’re likely to have a new leader anyway.”_  
  
Sakura felt her eyebrow twitch. _“Wait, so after all that, you’re saying we can safely trust Kakashi anyway? Then what was the point of this entire debate?!”  
  
“The point is that you now know you can trust Kakashi for sound, logical reasons. Not due to nonsense like hope and emotional manipulation. Now pay attention, those dogs look feisty.”_  
  


* * *

The next couple of weeks were quite interesting to Sakura. Now that she had decided Kakashi could be trusted to protect them on any mission a genin team was likely to take, she could relax and focus on her training. But while she did that, she also got to observe the effect Kakashi’s words had on Naruto and Sasuke.  
  
On one hand, those words didn’t really seem to have any impact on their relationship, or lack thereof. The two boys were still viciously acerbic to each other. You honestly couldn’t leave them alone for fifteen minutes without an argument flaring up, often about the silliest things. Like whether tomato soup was better than ramen. And they competed on _everything_. Even on things you really shouldn’t compete on, like how many weeds you can pull out of a garden. Sakura had to move fast to prevent Naruto from denuding the flowerbed to pad his score.  
  
On the other hand, the boys were now far more respectful of the jounin, and on the rare occasions the man gave them orders, they would jump to obey with alacrity. Their team training sessions, in particular, were suddenly far more productive. Sakura wouldn’t go so far as to call the team a well-oiled machine, but at least none of them would get in each other’s way in a fight.  
  
In fact, Kakashi’s little spiel had worked so well, Sakura wondered why he didn’t step in more often during their D-ranks when the boys were about to do something particularly bone-headed. It was during the flowerbed incident, after Sakura had managed to get Naruto straightened out, that she glanced over and spotted a gleam of approval in her sensei’s eye. And that’s when she understood - Kakashi was standing back to see who would emerge as the team leader.  
  
Sasuke’s talent and name should have made him the obvious pick, but then, hadn’t Kakashi himself urged them to look beneath the surface? Sakura hadn’t needed Tanya’s urging to take advantage of the opportunity. Part of the criteria for promotion to chunin was leadership skills, since chunin often led genin teams on low-rank missions. Demonstrating said leadership by corralling her unruly teammates was an obvious path to promotion.  
  
From that day, Sakura started to assert herself more and more during missions. Controlling Naruto was easy - he liked her anyway, so reinforcing his fondness with a few tips on his ongoing experiments with the Transformation technique, and he’d follow her instructions like an over-eager puppy.  
  
Sasuke was a bit trickier, since the last Uchiha possessed a prickly pride that needed to be worked around. Thankfully, he also really, _really_ hated D-ranks. He saw them as an utter waste of time, and so he was grateful for anything that made them go by faster. Once convinced that Sakura’s plans could get the job done in the shortest possible time, he fell in line without demur.  
  
Sakura was a bit worried about what would happen once they graduated to more important missions, but Tanya assured her that obedience was a habit. As long as she didn’t screw up where Sasuke could see, he’d continue to follow her instructions out of inertia.  
  
The best part about slowly taking command of the team, was that she was also able to minimize their grumbling about the missions. Yes, Sakura was getting a bit tired of the chores as well. But rationally speaking, it was in the village’s interest to get them on more high-paying missions as soon as possible. Not getting any either meant there weren’t any to be had, or that Kakashi didn’t feel them ready yet. Either way, the best response was to wait for a signal from their sensei. It wasn’t easy though - Naruto had looked on the verge of exploding after they had to retrieve the daimyo’s wife’s cat three times in the same day. She had to step in and remind Kakashi he’d promised to show them his underground movement technique to get the blond boy to calm down.  
  
It was three days after the incident of the escaping cat, that their comfortable routine came to a screeching halt. Kakashi showed up right at seven-thirty.  
  
Sakura immediately fell into a guard position while accelerating her mind to detect genjutsu. To her satisfaction, the boys instinctively fell into formation around her, even though it was clear they had no clue what was happening.  
  
Kakashi eye-smiled. “Good reactions, but we need to move. We have a C-rank mission.”  
  
“Once we check you for Transformation,” Sakura shot back.  
  
Kakashi chuckled. “You’re a little young to be that paranoid… but far be it from me to discourage good habits.”  
  
Checking only took a few seconds, and then the entire team was sprinting for the gate. Kakashi filled them in on the run.  
  
“Genin team 8 took a C-rank a few days back. Escort mission. I don’t have the full details, but apparently the client had missing-nin coming for his head. Team 8’s jounin-sensei, Kurenai Yuuhi, managed to take down the two attackers. But in the course of the fighting, one of her genin got poisoned. She rushed to bring him back to Konoha, but that has left her remaining two genin guarding the client. They are on their way back as well, but the client is slowing them down. We are to rendezvous with the remaining members of team 8, and escort them and the client back to Konoha.”  
  
Sakura’s heart had started to thunder at the phrase ‘missing-nin’. “If there are enemy shinobi involved, shouldn’t this be a B-rank mission minimum?”  
  
“The enemy shinobi have already been neutralized. The plan is to get them all back to Konoha before any more have a chance to show up.”  
  
_“Classic corporate penny-pinching,”_ groused Tanya. _“Since this is sounding like a village-issued mission, naturally the village will put as low a rank on it as they can get away with paying.”_  
  
Sakura wasn’t worried about the pay. She was worried about going up against other shinobi with only six weeks of training. Kakashi seemed to pick up on her concern, because he gave her a confident look. “You don’t have to worry. If any enemy shinobi show up, I can take care of them easily. Just focus on protecting the client from stray kunai.”  
  
Sakura did her best to relax at those words. She couldn’t afford to appear anything less than confident. But all she could think of was the first rule of battle - _“No plan survives contact with the enemy. That’s why he’s called the enemy.”_


End file.
